Confidentiality
by Sophie9
Summary: Ya know Doogie's home life always seemed a little bland and control freaky. Well, now he's got a kid sister with attitude, and problems of her own.
1. Default Chapter

Katherine placed the casserole on the table and sat down. "Dig in guys!" She smiled.  
  
Jane looked warily at the dish, and exchanged wan glances with Doogie.  
  
"Come on!" David admonished, "Eat up! It's good for you!"  
  
Grudgingly Doogie passed his sister's plate over, then his to be filled with food. Their father piled food on Katherine's plate, then his own.  
  
"Looks great, Mom." Doogie offered.  
  
Jane rolled her eyes. Suck up. She picked at her food in silence.  
  
"So," mom smiled at them both, but looked at Jane, "how was school today?"  
  
Jane shrugged, and swallowed her mouthful of casserole. "Fine."  
  
"Just fine?" David questioned.  
  
Jane resisted the urge to sigh in frustration. Of course fine isn't good enough for you.  
  
"What, you want a better vocabulary word?" She asked, not realizing the words had left her mouth until it was too late. She gasped at her own lack of reticence and put a hand over her mouth, looking down at the floor in shame.  
  
"What was that young lady?"  
  
Jane was nearly squirming in her seat she was so uncomfortable.  
  
"Dad," Doogie broke in, " she didn't mean it that way. You know how school is."  
  
She wasn't sure if she was grateful for his defense of her, or if she just hated him more for it, the chasm between the two so often now seemed inescapable-but the chasm realized, only, to her.  
  
He ignored him.  
  
"No," he answered, "I've had it with her back talk, and her attitude lately. I've been trying to let it slide, but you can only let things go so far. Young woman, puberty or not-"  
  
"Dad!" She screeched, horrified.  
  
"School or not," he continued, "you will abide by the rules of this house- the same rules that you've abided by since you were a toddler- respect. The same rules that apply to your brother."  
  
Yeah, she rolled her eyes discreetly, sure they do.  
  
"At this table, and in this house you will speak with respect! You don't dare speak in such a tone to myself or to your mother!"  
  
"We all work to put food on the table and put clothes on your back, and this is the thanks we get?"  
  
"David," Katherine hissed, trying to soothe him.  
  
Jane could feel his eyes on her.  
  
"Aren't you ashamed!?"  
  
He wanted her to say yes, she knew. Wanted her to be shamed and submissive. Jane couldn't think what she'd done to make him so on edge with her. She didn't want to think about it now, either. For all she knew, he probably still expected her to submit to a spanking, like she was five years old.  
  
Her cheeks hot, her jaw clenched to keep from crying she jumped up from the seat and ran from the room.  
  
Katherine rose from her seat, looking beseechingly at her husband. "David, it wasn't that bad. She's a sensitive girl. We don't know what's going on in her life, at school- she might have just had a bad day."  
  
"You know how girls her age are Dad," Doogie offered. "One bad word at school can ruin their whole day. It's make or break in middle school, remember."  
  
David sighed, shaking his head. "I just don't know."  
  
Katherine walked over to him, kissing him gently on the forehead. "You can't David, you can't even imagine. After all, you've never been a little girl."  
  
Doogie turned a laugh into a cough. "Mom, I don't think you should say that to her."  
  
David sat down, more relaxed and smiled wanly. "Yes, I believe they're called, young women, now?" He shook his head again, amused by something. "Or is it adolescent?"  
  
Katherine smiled at him. "I'll go talk to her." 


	2. 2

Okay, there's lot of fix ups needed here, but I just have to get this up, and when I'm in a "secure location", I will fix them.  
  
Is this what being brain dead feels like? She wondered. Maybe I'm dreaming. It just seems like the same day over and over again. Why can't they talk hospital stuff, I don't know, at the hospital, or in the living room? God, I'm trying to eat!  
  
"Well, she came in complaining of fatigue and stomach problems," he began.  
  
His father nodded and bid him to continue.  
  
"It's not like she's my patient or anything," he added.  
  
"So, what's wrong with her?" asked concerned.  
  
Doogie shrugged regretfully, "she's bulemic. Or anorexic, he corrected. Something."  
  
"Ah," his father nodded understandingly. "And you're hoping she'll become your patient so that you can help her?"  
  
Doogie looked around the table sheepishly. "NOt exacyly.  
  
David raised an eyebrow. "What then?" His voice immplied that he suspected trouble.  
  
"Well," Doogie played with the food on his plate, "She doesn't have any real family to speak of, no friends, well I guess she can't, he corrected himself, and she needs real support to get over this. People that aren't a bunch of bulemic anorexic ballerinas themselves perpetuating the disorder. SHe needs a taste of real life," he insisted.  
  
'Doogie," Katherine broke in gently, "what are you asking?"  
  
"Sounds to me as if you're wanting to step across a line son, and I'm not sure that's such a good idea."  
  
"Dad, she's not my patient!"  
  
"It's a fine line Douglas, you are still a doctor-  
  
But not her doctor," he insisted.  
  
"You're asking for trouble."  
  
He looked to Katherine. "SHe's the one that's in trouble! Giving her a quick fix and shoving her back into the ballet company to be swallowed up isn't going to help anything. You can't report bulemia to her boss and expect it to be viewed as a serious problem!" She needs stability, balance!"  
  
"What are you saying, Douglas?" ALthough from his tone, he already knew the answer.  
  
"I'm saying," he sighed, "she could stay with us." He held up his hands defensively. "Not forever, just for a little while, until she gets back on her feet."  
  
"Ugh! No way!" Jane answered. "You want some stuck up ballerina staying here? No way!"  
  
Jane!" David stared her down. "There is no speaking at this table, unless you're spoken to." She gaped and stared at Doogie.  
  
"He's talking!"  
  
"He was asked a question.And we are having a conversation."  
  
She continued to stare at her father, mouth agape, at the injustice of it all. Voo-do doll, she told herself, Voo-do doll.  
  
What you mean, she corrected silently is you only want the people that matter to talk. She shut her mouth, glaring hard at the table top. Then as Doogie and her Dad continued to speak, she kicked her brother's chair, hard with her foot.  
  
She laughed softly when she saw the chair wobble backward, and Doogie with it. Serves him right, she thought.  
  
David slammed his fork down and glared at Jane. "Do you want to leave this table?"  
  
Jane almost burst out laughing. Of course!  
  
"Wipe that look off your face, young lady!"  
  
Jane screwed her lips together and slammed her foot on the floor in frustration.  
  
"That's it!" He shouted. "Go!" He pointed down the hall. "Now!" Jane shoved her chair backward. "Fine," she answered sarcastically.  
  
She still head their insane conversation at her back as she walked.  
  
"Doogie, she's a perfect stranger- you don't know what other problems she has."  
  
"SHe might just be using you son," David reminded him, "knowing that you're generous and young- she's might be attracted to you."  
  
"SHe's never even seen me," he muttered softly.  
  
That silenced the whole table.  
  
"What?"  
  
'well, Jack's her doctor, he asks my opinion, I got some information about her, saw her in her room-  
  
"Doogie! This is serious! You're coming close to looking into confidential material- asking Dr. McGuire to reveal things he can't."  
  
"No, dad, i figured it out on my own."  
  
"Are you attracted to her?"  
  
"No! She's just, I want to help her."  
  
Katherine spoke up "Doogie, I'm not certain you even know what you're talking about. You don't know what life is really like in a ballet company. You begged us not to take you to the Nutcracker."  
  
"Mom!" He sighed. Don't you at least want to help this girl?"  
  
"I'm not sure it's our place to son, your concern is admerable- but think for a moment, if you took in every ill or down on their luck person- it'd be like running an animal shelter- bringing home every puppy that will follow you."  
  
"Dad!" He looked at him agast at the comparison.  
  
"I wanna talk to her," he continued- not as a doctor- I'm just curious."  
  
'Like she's a freak show.." Jane rolled her eyes, and shut her bedroom door. She had a sudden thought, and yanked her bedroom door open, yelling out,  
  
"Doogie!" She made her voice sing-song. "Don't forget about Wanda!" She pealed with laughter and slammed her door shut. I might as well get in trouble for something real, she thought, instead of Dad's stupid rules. 


	3. 3

Again, same deal. I'll fix it up layta. ;)  
  
She stared into his bedroom and sighed. Well, at least there's one thing similar to us- we're both messy. But, she amended, thinking of her own room, mine's creative mess. He just has junk all over. At least I have useful stuff.  
  
She was referring to her books, notebooks and papers, strewn strategically around so as to look like normal mess, it really hid secrets. There was so much mess, no one would dare try to snoop. Plus, no one would ever imagine her secret thoughts and dreams were hidden beneath certain clothes piles, and certain books and old toys. No one.  
  
Jane laughed to herself. Doogie's so stupid! He keeps all his 'secrets' right on his computer! She shook her head and rolled her eyes. What if it crashes? He'd lose everything. Then she shrugged. It's not like the stuff's important, anyway. 'I woke up. I went to work. I stared at sick people. It was a big day.' Laughing again she realized, he was an old kid, but his room was as messy as a five year old's.  
  
"And he's supposed to be a genius!" She scoffed. "Look at this kid's mess!"  
  
"Hey! That's genius mess to you!"  
  
Jane gasped, startled at being discovered.  
  
Doogie playfully pushed past her, giving her a wide grin as he did so. She smiled back, but she knew he was forcing his playfulness, or if not quite forcing it, he was still doing it for her sake. He wasn't sincere, there was something odd about the way he acted around her lately. Like he was treating her carefully, just because. Like she was a special case from the hospital. She was being patronized. And she couldn't stand that!  
  
She sighed impatiently. "Cut it out, Doogie."  
  
He looked at her, surprised. "What?"  
  
"Just quit it, okay?"  
  
"Quit what?"  
  
She rolled her eyes, and cocked her head to one side. Some genius.  
  
"Acting like that around me!" Letting out an exasperated sigh she glared and added, "Just treat me normal-okay?"  
  
Doogie held his hands up and open in front of him in surrender.  
  
Normal, she thought, story of my life.  
  
Then Doogie fell back on his bed as if he'd been shot. Jane almost laughed aloud. Almost. Then she remembered she was supposed to be mad at him. Or someone. But, she couldn't very well take it out on Dad, could she?  
  
He really is just like a kid, she thought, no matter what. A kid let lose in an adult's world. She shook her head, and almost felt sorry for him then.  
  
"You want a ride to school?" He offered, breaking her from her thoughts.  
  
"I can drop you off on my way to the hospital."  
  
The offer was genuine, she knew. And she knew it'd give them a chance to talk, just like old times. Or, as close to old times as they could get now. She shook her head.  
  
"No thanks, Doog. I'm gonna walk."  
  
"You sure?" He propped himself up on his elbow.  
  
"Yeah," she nodded. "It gives me time to myself for once, time to think about stuff not school related."  
  
Doogie smiled. "I know how that feels."  
  
She looked at him sadly. Yeah, sure you do.  
  
He looked at Jane as if he wanted to say something, but then he shook his head, and took his gaze to the side.  
  
"Well, I'd better get going." Smiling faintly at him, she turned to go.  
  
"It runs in the family, you know."  
  
Jane turned back. "What?"  
  
"Messiness."  
  
She gave him a genuine smile then, and hurried off, yelling back,  
  
"And don't bring that ballerina home!"  
  
Her words echoed through his head every time he passed the exam room she'd been in. She was upstairs now. Away from him. And that, he assumed, was probably for the best. After all, in her emotional state it probably wouldn't be a good time to start dating.  
  
Doogie shook his head. But I don't want to date her! He reminded himself. 


	4. 4

"Hey, Curly!" He grinned at her as he swiped a chart from the pile.  
  
She met his gaze and smiled back gamely. "Hey yourself. How was lunch?"  
  
"Well," he paused for dramatic emphasis, "sandwiched between a colectomy and an appy, I suppose it was just fine."  
  
She looked steadily at him.  
  
"It's still in your locker isn't it? Brown bag and all."  
  
He grinned sheepishly, and hoped he wasn't blushing. He held his hands up and backed away. "You got me."  
  
She shook her head hopelessly, then out of nowhere, tossed him a jelly filled donut. He caught it in his free hand as she added, "At least it's something."  
  
He continued backing toward the next exam room still facing her and grinned, then took a big bite of dounut as he finally glanced down at the chart.  
  
Doogie! Spaulding's voice was shrill and paniced. He looked back up instantly.  
  
Curly was still at the desk, looking regretfully down at the pile of charts, then back at him.  
  
"That's... that's , her sounded suddenly out of breath. "He'll handle that." She looked downright sick.  
  
"Cur, you okay?" He took a step towards her.  
  
"No," she whispered, then quickly shook her head and looked him in the eye. "I'm fine," she amended.  
  
"Jack!" She yelled.  
  
Doogie stared at her, confused. "What's the matter?"  
  
"He's got that one. I'm sorry. It was my fault. He just put the chart down for a minute, asked me to watch it- I put it in the pile. I wasn't paying attention. I'm sorry."  
  
At that moment McGuire appeared from around the corner. "What's up Spaulding?"  
  
Then he glanced at Doogie who still held a chart in one hand and doughnut in the other.  
  
"He's got your chart,"  
  
For a moment Jack looked serious and worried. But just as quickly the look vanished and he was smiling again. Deftly he slipped his chart out of Doogie's hands, playfully wrapping him on the head as he did so.  
  
"I got this one Howser, go get your own patients."  
  
"No, I can handle it Jack, it's fine. You're on break now. Go ahead. I can take care of things for the brief time you're gone. I've done it before, he reminded.  
  
"Well," he sighed looking at him with authority, "things have changed. My break's not for an hour yet."  
  
"AN hour?" Doogie demanded.  
  
"Keep it down," he whispered, putting a hand over Doogie's shoulders and escourting him back to the desk.  
  
"You didn't even eat your lunch, Doogie." Curly put her hands on her hips.  
  
"Touche."  
  
"So, that's what this is!" Jack yanked the doughnut from Doogie's hand and took a bite all before any objection could be said.  
  
"Ya know," he spoke around the bite of doughnut, "these things are pretty bad for ya Doog," he swallowed, "wouldn't want to be the reason you end up on the cutting table." He turned playfully towards Curly. "Curly, what'd you give this to him for?"  
  
"what makes you think I gave it to him?" He grinned, then gallantly took her hand, raising it to his lips as if to kiss it. Then he turned it over, exposing the powdered sugar covered palm.  
  
"Caught, white handed," he grinned.  
  
He gave the doughnut back to Doogie. "I'll tell ya what kid, you run upstairs to see our ballet star, and grab some lunch while you're at it. I'll cover for you here."  
  
"Won't things get too busy?"  
  
"Douglas, Douglas, Douglas," he smiled, "you think this hospital just popped up when you came around? Oh no, my friend. It's been here for quite a while. It's made due without your genius talent's before.... I think it can manage to go without for say, 30 minutes or more."  
  
Doogie cast a glance at nurse Spaulding, who only nodded her encouragement. HE looked warily back at Jack. "you're sure?"  
  
"GO ahead! Eating in front of the kid might be good for her too. Show her what normal people do."  
  
Still hesistant, but nonetheless obeying, Doogie walked back to the stairway.  
  
"Upstairs?" He asked. Jack nodded.  
  
Upstairs upstairs. The nut house, Doogie confirmed, and grimaced. He didn't like the term for the ward any more than he liked the idea of sending a girl with an eating disorder there. She wasn't insane, just-  
  
"Her name's Ashley, by the way," Jack called out, as Doogie yanked open the stairway door.  
  
See ya later Doog!" He added. "And don't scare her off!"  
  
"I won't!" He answered, and headed upstairs. 


	5. 5

She was in bed staring at the TV.  
  
Doogie looked down at the food he was carrying, food that he hoped would appeal to a ballerina (whatever they ate). He was sure it would be enough for the two of them. The two of them. He laughed inwardly at the thought. We're not together, he reminded himself. He could feel his pulse throbbing in his neck, and his throat felt dry. We're not together, he reminded himself, we won't be together. This is just a patient. He nodded confirming the idea, just a patient. That's the way to think of it. A patient who hasn't eaten lunch. "Okay," he sighed, "I can do this." With that he raised his head resolutely, knocked on the door and walked in.  
  
"What, why bother knocking if you're just going to barge in on me anyway?"  
  
Were the words that greeted him.  
  
Doogie stumbled over his own feet and lurched forward barely managing to keep himself upright.  
  
She laughed.  
  
"Who are you? The circus entertainment?"  
  
His hands felt shaky. "Uh,um," he cleared his throat. "Um, no, of course not." He managed a small smile. "I uh, just wanted to um, see if you were hungry?" He raised his eyebrows and looked expectantly at her.  
  
She's in charge here, he reminded himself, the ball's in her court. Remember, you're just a doctor. Have to be professional.  
  
He held up the food he'd snagged from a small café across the street. "I brought lunch."  
  
Her eyes narrowed and she looked at him skeptically. "Security let you in here? I'm used to weirdos trying to get into my dressing room, but this is somethin' else."  
  
Doogie laughed uneasily. "No. No. I uh, work here, I'm a doctor."  
  
She burst out laughing at that. She laughed so hard in fact, that she had to lie back on the bed and clutch her abdomen.  
  
"A doctor! That's a good one!"  
  
She kept laughing for quite some time. Which was actually good. Doogie's embarrassment gave way to annoyance and anger. Slight anger. But he would use it to his advantage. If I'm angry, there's no way I'm going to think of well, of liking her.  
  
"I really am," he insisted when she'd stopped laughing. "I work here."  
  
She chuckled. Then bent down and pulled the bedsheets up so that her leg was visible. Then she pointed to her ankle. "What muscle is this?"  
  
"The soleus," he answered.  
  
"What muscle is this?" She pointed to the opposite side.  
  
"Gastrocenemius."  
  
"What's the definition of anaerobic?"  
  
"Not supplying oxygen." He shrugged. "Well, that's part of it- is that enough for you?"  
  
She sat back on the bed and looked at him. "Hmmm. Maybe."  
  
Doogie held his hands up. "Would I be dressed like this if I wasn't?" He made sure she could see his jacket, stethoscope and ID.  
  
She laughed again. "God, I hope not!"  
  
What's ATP Process?"  
  
He raised his eyebrows.  
  
"What, you think I'm stupid? Just because I make my living off my body like a street whore, doesn't mean I'm stupid."  
  
Street whore? He backed away a step.  
  
"I um..." Her dark eyes fell on the bag in his hand. She nodded to him. "What's in there?"  
  
Suddenly he remembered his excuse for being there, and was very grateful. "I uh, brought up some lunch for you," he offered hesitantly, more frightened by her by the minute. She's definitely not like Wanda. His image of her being a sweet young girl because, well, just because, vanished.  
  
"Doesn't the cafeteria staff usually do that?" Her eyes narrowed. "they watch me like a hawk too," she added. "But I'm the least of their worries." She shook her head. "You seen the nuts they got up in here?"  
  
"I uh, he didn't know if there was a politically correct way to answer that.  
  
"Course that means they think I'm nuts too.."  
  
HE was starting to see that she did indeed have some sort of issue beyond just food. Like anger, and lots of it. She sure asked a lot of questions though. But from the looks of her- he'd seen her calf muscle, if he brought up anything anger related, he wanted to make sure there was security nearby. She could probably decapitate him with one good kick.  
  
"Hey! Doctor Howser!"  
  
With a gasp he snapped to attention. "How'd you know my name?"  
  
She smiled and shook her head like he was hopeless. "I saw your name tag." She laughed aloud then.  
  
"God, and they let you operate on people?" She burst out laughing again.  
  
He laughed, uneasily, and sat down in the chair by her bed. He felt as though he were being interegated.  
  
He starting taking things out of the bag, containers, utensils, water.  
  
"Let's see.... We've got some tuna fish salad, some french fries, a spinach and sprouts salad, a grilled chicken sandwich, and some carrot sticks."  
  
She was just staring at the food in shock.  
  
"I didn't really know what ballerinas eat." He offered.  
  
"What ballerinas eat? You make it sound like I'm a zoo animal or some exotic pet! I'm not from an alien planet, Doogie."  
  
Now it was his turn to be shocked. "How'd you know my nick-name?"  
  
She smiled smugly and reached for the salad and a fork. "Word gets around."  
  
"So you knew about me?" His voice was shrill. Then why was she teasing him? Saying she didn't believe he was a doctor?  
  
She shrugged. "I just didn't know if it was completely true."  
  
He gave her a wan grin. "Well, it is."  
  
She nodded, chewing a mouthful of salad. She swallowed and stuck out her hand- as far as her IV would let her. Doogie took it.  
  
"I'm Ashley by the way." She smiled  
  
He smiled back and shook the offered hand. "I know. Word gets around."  
  
She nodded at all the food on the table.  
  
"I hope you're hungry." 


	6. 6

Doogie opened the door, late he knew, and hoping Mom wouldn't be too upset, since she'd already told him she was making apple pie as a special treat for Dad today. Just for the heck of it. Or to try and diffuse the situation that seemed to be escalating between Jane and Dad.

He walked inside, glad that at least the heat wasn't on him, expecting to either hear the sounds of silverware on plates and smell the apple pie, or worse, see everyone gathered in the living room, post meal.

Instead he did see everyone gathered in the living room, but it was a far cry from the typical gathering he'd been expecting. He saw his father standing, his back to him, with Mom at his side. His lecture stance.

Doogie suddenly felt like a young kid again, who'd just barely gotten away with some mildly unacceptable behavior with Vinnie. And getting home to find out that he hadn't gotten away with it at all.

Uh oh.

Then he shook his head and realized feeling a bit foolish, that obviously it wasn't he that was sitting on the couch in front of his parents.

Ooh, he grimaced, I hope Mom's done something with that pie, he thought.

Dad turned around then a wide grin (which Doogie easily recognized as not a grin) spread across his face.

"Doogie!" He called out, seemingly overjoyed to see him. "Great that you can join us!"

Oh boy... he struggled to think of a way out of this, even though he wasn't a kid anymore he had the distinct feeling he could be in trouble, somehow. Oh please, let the hospital page me, he prayed.

Dad motioned him in and to sit.

Wary, Doogie declined, as politely as possible. Nothing was worth risking angering Dad further. And he was angry.

"Douglas," he began, "perhaps you can help us with something here,"

Doogie groaned. He hated being pulled in on things like this. He glanced past Dad for a moment to Jane positioned on the bed, staring at her feet, but he could see the redness in her cheeks.

"Did you or did you not drive Jane to school today?"

He thought back, trying to be careful of his answer, but realizing that was impossible, since his Dad had yet to give away any clues as to the situation, and Jane wasn't offering any help with her eyes glued to the floor.

Hesitantly he answered, "Well I was going to, but she decided to walk."

"I see."

Doogie had his eyes on Jane. Something wasn't right. But he couldn't put his finger on it.

"So, she walked."

Doogie nodded, distracted by thoughts.

"Did you see her leave the house?"

He didn't see what good drawing this out would do. "Dad, I don't remember. Maybe it would help if you told me what was actually going on!"

He hadn't mean to sound so harsh, but something in the whole situation irritated him. It was wrong somehow.

"More than happy to son, more than happy to." Dad smiled his smile that was anything but.

"It seems that Jane didn't go to school today."

Doogie shrugged.

Obviously the motion went un-noticed.

"The school called around noon to say she hadn't been present for any of her classes," Mom added. "They wanted to know if she was home sick."

Jane's arms were crossed across her chest and she glared at the floor. She was on the verge of explosion.

Doogie wanted to walk right back out the door. Why were they dragging him in on this?

"We've been trying to coerce the information out of her since three this afternoon. I left work early. We were even going to call you- but then Jane walked in the door with her backpack over her shoulder, like nothing had happened."

Jane shot to her feet, then faltered, grabbing the edge of the couch to steady herself.

"It's none of your business!" She screamed.

Doogie sighed wondering why he and his sister were so different. He had respect for authority and she, lately it seemed, had none.

"And I'm not going to tell you where I was! Get over it!"

She looked nearly hysterical with rage. That's odd, he thought. If she was guilty-

"You should be grateful I'm not dead or something!"

She let out a breath and moved to storm away, but Dad grabbed her by the arm. She winced, and tried to pull back, but stumbled.

Dad held her like that for a long time. Each of them staring at the other. Refusing to budge.

"Watch yourself young lady. After this your mother or Doogie or I will be not only dropping you off at school, but walking you to your first class, then picking you up after school."

She rolled her eyes, disgusted, and jerked away from him.

Doogie's mouth fell open. He didn't bother to shut it. As she walked, rather, stormed past him, he smelt heavy perfume. Very heavy. He closed his mouth. Ugh, he thought.

Doogie holed himself up in his room after that, no longer hungry for dinner, thinking. Something's weird about this. Sure she'd been acting strangely lately, but he knew Jane. She wasn't a bad kid.

When he got up to use the bathroom, a smell hit his nose. He closed the door, and tracked the smell to the laundry bin. It smells like, he thought, it smells like...

He opened the bin and saw the clothes Jane'd been wearing when he got home. He lifted them up and smelled the strong perfume Jane'd been wearing, but he also smelled....

"It smells like the morgue!" He exclaimed.

Confused, and more than worried, he picked out the rest of her outfit, then he saw the outfit she'd been wearing that morning when he'd caught her in his room.


	7. 7

"Hey! Doog-mister, Jr!"

Jane screamed at the unexpected voice, and whirled around from her bed.

She let out a shaky breath seeing who was in her window.

"What are you doing in here?" She hissed.

"Technically, I'm not in yet." He hopped down from the window sill, narrowly avoiding her old dollhouse.

"I'd think the second in line to genius would know that."

She rolled her eyes.

"Do you look in everyone's windows here? "

"Why do you all leave your windows open?"

She glared. He had a point.

"What are you doing in here?"

He shrugged innocently, taking a few steps further into the room.

"Couldn't help but notice the long face."

She frowned. Does everyone have to talk about me?

"You talked to Doogie." She hoped her tone sounded as disaproving as she felt.

"What the hell is going on in there?"

Jane jumped at the sound of her father's voice, but managed to affect a calm manner when the door swung open miliseconds later.

He stood in the doorway wearing pretty much the same look on his face as he had earlier that afternoon when she'd walked in the door. Jerk, she thought.

It wasn't until he swept his eyes off her that Jane remembered that Vinnie was in the room. She surpressed a smile, knowing immediately what Dad would think. Her in her pajamas. Vinnie in the same room… oh, this'll be good. She laughed softly.

"What are you laughing at, young lady?"

Obviously not softly enough. She clentched her jaw. Cranky. Jerk.

But quickly he turned his anger to Vinnie.

"And what in god's name are you doing in my daughter's room, Vincent?"

She had to give the old man credit, his voice nearly cracked with rage.

"Uh, Doctor Howser,"

Jane smiled at the elaborate way Vinnie pronounced her Dad's title.

"I was just on my way to young Douglas' room and-"

"Wrong room, Vincent." He spat the words out through clentched teeth.

Vinnie bobbed his head in acknowledgement.

"Yes, sir. Yes, sir," he stepped to the window, "I apologize." He threw a leg over the window sill. "Got misdirected."

"That's an understatement," Dad muttered, his eyes still glued on Vinnie.

"Yes, sir. I agree, sir." Vinnie still had a grin plastered to his face. Does he ever frown, she wondered.

"Why are you still here?"

"Right, sir!" Vinnie yanked his other leg over the sill sliding out to the otherside. "I'm gone, sir."

The second Vinnie was out of sight, to merely pop back into the next room of the house, Jane knew, Dad stalked over to the window slammed it shut and locked it.

That means he didn't talk to Doogie first, she thought. Was he watching me?

"Jane Howser!"

She snapped back from her thoughts. Dad was right in front of her.

"What?"

His eyes bulged in their familiar 'I'm about to bust a blood vessle I'm so mad' way.

"What?"

She just barely managed to hold in a laugh as her father's eyes widen even more.

"You mean, yes, sir, don't you." It wasn't a question.

No, I don't, she thought. She wanted to kick him. For a damn doctor she was surprised he couldn't tell that she

"Don't you?" His voice ricocheted across the room.

"Sure," she muttered.

He grabbed her shoulder. "You're thisclose Jane."

Her stomach knotted and she felt like she was going to puke. At least that'd get him out of here, she thought wryly.

"Ow!" She winced, yanking her shoulder away, tears springing to her eyes. She didn't care then. Not one bit.

She backed away from him, one hand over her stomach, that had somehow knotted up the way it did before she had to do a big presentation, the other over her face, pushing away the tears on her cheeks.

"Just leave me alone! I don't feel good! Just go away!"

She collapsed into hysterical girl tears, as her father would probably call them, onto her bed. Hoping everyone inch of her body was screaming like a neon sign stay away! Leave me alone! Apparently so, as for once, without another word, or chidding, Dr. Howser actually let something drop. He'd even switched her light out and closed the door.

"Jerk," she muttered. And thought of all the ways she could blame this on him.

"Hey, Doog. What's up with Kid Sis'?

He shrugged. "I don't know."

"Got in it with the big Dr. H?"

"Pretty much. Dad wanted me to take sides with him too."

"ouch."

"Yeah."

He didn't tell Vinnie about the clothes he'd found in the bin, not yet. He needed to work things out on his own first.

"Heard her crying coming up to your room, so I made a detour."

"Really?" He was surprised. He thought he would have heard it.

"D'you know she still has that Magic Rock?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

He nodded. "I saw it in her room. It was behind her desk. Probably fell there. She probably doesn't even remember that she has it."

"What magic rock? What are you talking about?"

"Don't tell me you don't remember."

Doogie held up his hands. "Enlighten me."

"Great genius, huh?" He shook his head.

"Remember when we would go out to that vacant lot way off in the middle of nowhere? The place we thought no one else knew about?"

A grin spread across Doogie's face. Sure he remembered. That was their spot. The place that no one knew about. Especially their parents. Because if they'd known they had gone that far outside 'where it's safe' which was at that point, within yelling distance, they would have been in major, major trouble. To this day Doogie was sure his parents still didn't know about it. He'd like to keep it that way.

He nodded. "We should go back there sometime, you know."

Vinnie nodded thoughtfully, obviously half in his own memories of the place as well. They'd sort of grown out of it around when Doogie'd started going to medical school, or had taken the SATs. Back when he thought he had to be 'grown-up' and had convinced Vinnie of the same thing.

"Remember that one time, right before you got sick"

"The first time or the second time?" He tried to make his voice sound bored.

You got sick. Those three little words still brought back a flood of memories and emotions. For the briefest moment, he saw Jane, just a baby really, smacking a kiss on his cheek and holding an ice pack to his hot forehead, her hair just starting to grow back where Vinnie had tried to shave it for her. Doogie smiled, then pushed all the thoughts back.

"The second."

Doogie was six.

Doogie nodded, going back instead to the first time, he was four, which was right around the time Jane had been born. And he'd been mad, thinking that his parents had had another child to replace him with, because they knew he was going to die. He shook his head, still feeling a tinge of that misunderstood childhood anger.

"and Jane came with us?" Vinnie's voice had kept going. Doogie pulled himself together to hear the rest of it.

Vinnie laughed. "Your mom thought we were only taking her down the block, cuz she couldn't walk very far yet."

Doogie did remember. She'd walked the whole way with them, her chubby hands sticky with lolipop holding onto both of theirs.

"Remember how she fell off that curb? Scrapped her knee?"

That's when she'd let go. And they'd let her run ahead. He still felt guilty. Then he remembered the blood, and how she'd howled as only a two year old could. A howl that could bring any parent regardless of gene links, running.

And Vinnie'd known it. He acted fast.

"And I picked up that rock, put it in my pocket, and made up that whole story?"

Doogie laughed. "Yeah, how it saved your life from aliens!" He laughed harder.

Vinnie's cheeks were red with embarassment over the childish act. Which for all they knew, Jane still believed. We were her idols, he sighed. And then he felt the distance between them. How many years had it gone on? How he'd left her behind.

The sound of his father's yelling brought Doogie back to the present.

Vinnie shook his head. "Is he like that with his patients? I don't know much about all this medical junk, but even I could learn to have a better bedside manner than that!"

Doogie smiled wanly.

Then they heard Jane's voice, high pitched, indignant, and surprisingly upset, Doogie realized. He made a mental note to talk to her, once things had cooled down.

And when they heard Dad's heavy footsteps coming down the hall, in their direction, both boys froze. Waiting, When they heard his footsteps pass Doogie's room they each relaxed.

But just as Vinnie opened his mouth to speak they heard,

"Go home Vincent!"

Vinnie smiled guiltily.

"I suppose seeing me with Jane in her pj's kinda soured his mood."

Doogie raised his eyebrows in shock and laughed. "I've gotta hand it to you Vinnie, you've got guts."

And then they heard Dr. Howser's voice again, just outside the door.

"Douglas, to bed young man. Vincent- get out of my house."

"Guess I'd better make my exit." He bowed dramatically to Doogie before making his way to the window.

"I bet he'll watch me out the window," he whispered.

Doogie laughed.

"Let's go, Vincent."

Doogie put a fist over his mouth to muffle his laughter.

"See ya later Doog!" Vinnie called out, then dropped out of sight.

Then from the street he heard Vinnie call out, "Good night, Dr. Howser! Goodnight Mrs. Howser!"

Doogie fell on his bed and laughed into his pillow till his sides ached.


	8. 8

I find it interesting that Doogie's house is a two story house, and yet you only see a staircase once in one scene but that staircase isn't there in any other scene.

On with the story..,

"Hey! I'm in here!"

Doogie froze for a moment, then backed up a step, taking the door back as well for decency.

"Sorry," he muttered, feeling embarassed. "Didn't know you were in there."

"Obviously." Her sarcastic tone echoed off the tile.

Doogie felt steam on his hand as he heard a splash in the bare second since he'd opened the door..

"What are you doing in there?"

"Taking a bath,"she answered as though he were an idiot.

Judging from the steam that wafted out of the crack, one hot enough to boil her.

"IT's six in the morning!"

"I know what time it is." Again, the 'duh, you're stupid' tone.

"Well, I have to get ready for work."

"What're you doing in here?" She asked in return. "Use your own bathroom."

Another splash.

"I would," he answered tersely, "but there's no hot water."

"Oh." Her tone was flat. Then she giggled.

"Use the downstairs bathroom." Her tone bored. She wasn't budging.

Hell, neither was he. He sighed, frustrated. This was his kid sister, who, he recalled, he had seen naked. As a baby, but still. He wasn't going to be kicked around, nor was he going to hold to the decency and pretense he'd have to hold to with a patient at the hospital. Indulging them, humoring them, being polite.

"Pull the curtain then, for crying out loud! I'm not using the downstairs bathroom!"

She snorted with laughter, but he heard the sound of the curtian rings sliding across. He walked in shaking his head, and closed the door behind him. "I've gotta be at the hospital in an hour. And you've got nothing I haven't seen."

"Perv," she muttered.

He flinched slightly hearing his words, remembering Wanda. How, she could have said the exact same thing, but hadn't. Well, not exactly. The memory of that night and what he'd had to do still left his skin feeling clammy.

He tried to ignore her calculated comment and stepped over to the sink to wash his face, then noticed the mirror.

"That water's hot enough to burn your skin," he observed, one hand wiping the condensation off the mirror in front of him.

"Fine with me."

"Well, did you have to fog up the whole bathroom?" The entire room was a fine mist of steam.

He heard a loud splash. He waited, and turned the water on. It was lukewarm. He shrugged. Better than ice cold.

He heard her spitting out water and heard what he knew was mass amounts of water streaming from her thick hair.

"What, you wanna shave or something?" She laughed, but her tone was bitter and condescending.

He sighed at his reflection. "Some of us have to work, you know." He dried his hands and face on the nearest towel, his thoughts drifting to work. He wondered if Dr.Canfield would have anything to criticize him about today. And then wondered which doctor he could talk to to get Jane's head checked out.

Then his gaze fell to the laundry bin. Doogie turned off the water and walked over to it, the essence of nonchalance.

"Why are you taking a scalding bath at 6AM anyway?" He began carefully rummaging through the clothes.

"Hey!" The sudden sharpness in her voice startled him, and he straighted up.

"What're you doing?"

"Uh," he glanced over and saw that she was indeed watching him, part of one finger,a lock of hair and a suspicious eye showing from behind the curtain.

"I think I left some money in my pants pocket."

"Oh." Immediately uninterested her finger let go the curtain, her eye and strand of hair vanished. The curtain fell back into place as she slid back into the water.

He looked again. The clothes weren't there. His were, but hers weren't. She obviously thought someone would notice the oddity. He closed the bin and frowned. He turned to address the curtain.

"You didn't answer my question. Why you're taking a bath so early."

" I don't feel good." Her tone told him the conversation would go no further.

Doogie shrugged and headed back to the door. "Well, Mom's making breakfast now, so you'd better get out of the tub soon. You don't want to be late for school because you're still drying your hair or something."

She let out an exasperated sigh.

"I don't feel like going. Tell mom I don't feel good."

Now it was Doogie's turn to laugh. "I don't think that's really going to go over well. Considering, well, whatever you actually did yesterday. Why you skipped school and whatever else."

"Well, you think too much anyway." Her tone was bitter. Could be possible that she was actually angry at him? The idea hadn't occurred to him before. Did she somehow blame him, think perhaps that he had gotten her in trouble or was she just angry that he hadn't stuck up for her? He sighed then and shut the door behind him.

"Maybe she's coming down with something." Mom finished pouring a glass of orange juice. "There is that bug going around."

Doogie smiled at the comment, but resisted the urge to laugh aloud. He knew playing messenger would be entertaining at least. Almost everyone who wasn't in the medical field had the same 'valid excuse' for someone getting sick. That there was 'something going around'. Always. No matter what time of year it was. It could be blamed on the flu, because it was 'going around', in the middle of August, even though it was common knowledge that 'the flu' doesn't really come around until winter, unless there's some odd outbreak. Although, technically speaking, yes there always was something going around, if you meant the spread of bacteria and germs from one person to another, but illness…well, it just amused Doogie.

Dad wasn't so amused however.

"She's sick?" He chuckled dryly. "How convenient." His Grinch smile spread across his face.

Doogie gulped. Yikes.

"That girl is going to class. Don't even think of letting her stay home Katherine. This is ridiculous. Who does she think she's fooling around here? Unless she honestly thinks I've gotten amnesia or a labotomy since yesterday afternoon, she's got no excuse to think anything other than she's grounded for the rest of the semester at least."

"David-"

"How dare she! The entire school day! And have the gall to think that we don't know about it, lie to us, to our faces, and tell us that school was fine. Unbelieveable. Just absolutely unbelieveable. Why if I'd pulled a stunt like that my father'd-"

"So, what was she doing?"

Doogie watched Dad's mouth flap shut. He knew the man hated to be interupted. But with only another ten minutes before he walked out the door, Doogie really wasn't that concerned.

"That's what we're trying to find out Douglas. According to the school's records, all of her friends were in school."

"So, at least we know they weren't all at the mall together." Mom smiled thinly and walked over to the kitchen table where an improntu breakfast was sitting.

"All the ones that we know of at least," Dad was glowering into his coffee cup.

Doogie frowned. It didn't look like they were going to let this go anytime soon.

"Who knows who else she hangs out with? Pretty soon she'll be skipping every class every day and she'll end up in jail or worse."

Doogie blinked. In the morgue, his mind added.

David, she's probably just experiementing. You know how kids are. She's testing her limits, exploring the world outside her norm.

Dad snorted in contempt. "Well, if she tests anything else, she can consider herself lucky to be exploring the world outside her bedroom."

He shook his head and shoved his chair back. "How do you think those kids end up that way? The parents are too lax, or don't give a damn, and that little class that they skipped…" he motioned wildly at nothing, then his eyes locked on Doogie.

What'd I do?

He raised a finger and pointed at him. "Doogie knows where kids like that end up! Unidentified at the morgue or at the bottom of the river!"

"Dad!" Doogie protested in unison with Mom's horrified screech "David, don't you dare!"

"That's disgusting!" Doogie finished.

David shrugged, as if unconcerned. "Mark my words Katherine, that's where kids like Jane end up. Defiant, that's her. If we don't rein her in some, that's where she'll be."

Sick to his stomach, Doogie stared at his father. Does he know? He wondered. Had he noticed it as well? Maybe that's where her clothes are, he thought, maybe Dad's analyzing them or something. Well good, at least I'm not the only one who smells something..fishy around here. Or, he considered, morgy.

Mom stood up, a hand over her mouth. "I don't want to hear anymore David. Not another word.

"Katherine," he whedled.

"Not another word!" She slammed the coffee cup down in front of him in emphasis. "I won't have it!"

Doogie closed his eyes. What Vinnie wouldn't give to be here now with his video camera..taping the young doctor's disfunctional family. Geez.

"Gee, I think I have to get to the hospital," he smiled. "Hate to leave in such a rush." He stood and pushed in his chair. "Gotta go!"

He left the kitchen as quickly as his feet could manage.

He saw Jane walking down the stairway at the same time he heard a police siren in the distance. He shook his head, the idea of it making Dad's point bothering him.

When the car, it's siren and lights bouncing off the house rode past, he was shocked to see Jane cringe, her mouth open in horror as she instantly froze in place, her hand gripping the stair rail so strongly that he saw her knuckles whiten. He blinked again, and she was standing, hands on her hips, staring at him. Annoyed.

"What?" He asked, wondering if he'd just imagined something.

"Why're you staring me? I thought you had to go to work."

"I do," he answered, holding his keys up as evidence while motioning to the door.

"Well, go then." Her tone was disgusted and annoyed. She flicked a still damp lock of hair off her face.

He stared at her, uncomprehending, the way he'd look at some bixarre virus under a microscope. Foreign. This sure wasn't his sister.

He opened his mouth, but shut it again, letting out an exasperated sigh and shook his head. "Whatever you say, Queenie." He let the slam of the door emphasis his point.


	9. 9

"I don't know what's going on with her. It's like some alien sucked her up and spat some brat down in her place. She has this huge attitude, and she doesn't care who hears it. And, from what I've heard lately, her voice sure carries. She's yelled at me at least a million times, and even my mom and dad."

"Wow," McGuire feigned being impressed, "a million, huh?"

Doogie shoved his shoulder. "Hey! This is serious!"

He glanced around at Jack and Curly who both seemed uninterested.

"Well, to me at least."

He only realized he must seem like some pouty kid, once Curly reached over and rumpled his hair. He gave her a half hearted grin and sat up straight in his chair.

"Hey, Doog," she smiled, "don't worry about it. She's just a kid. It's perfectly normal to go through phases like this."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, when I was her age I drove my parents nuts. I snuck out late, even tried to hot-wire my dad's car."

Doogie laughed out loud. "Great, you're telling me this is what I have to look forward to?" he shook his head. "I wasn't like that at her age."

Curly raised an eyebrow. "Oh, no?" She pushed her empty plate away from her. "Well, you may not have been that way at her age because you were up to your eyeballs in cadavers and medical texts."

"Uh huh, he just makes up for it now," McGuire laughed.

"I do not!" He insisted.

Jack tilted back in his seat so he could look down at Doogie. "What's this I hear about you throwing a party when the folks were away?"

"And drinking beer," Curly added.

"And taking your pop's BMW without permission?"

Doogie took a sidelong glance at the floor. "That was…different," he muttered.

"Oh yeah," Curly smiled, real different!" Then she laughed.

"Howser, you two are like two peas in a pod! The only difference is-

"That you can contain yourself better."

All three froze for a moment, then turned to look at the person who had just finished McGuire's sentence.

Jack was on his feet in an instant. "Uh, Dr. Canfield," he smiled, "it's nice to see you." He stepped back and motioned to his seat. "Would you care to sit? May I get you lunch?"

Dr. Canfield glared at him slightly. "I'm not an invalid, Dr. McGuire. Nor do I need some goffer caddy running around getting things for me."

"Exactly, sir. I apologize."

Doogie stared at Jack. Sure, he was surprised to see Dr.Canfield degning to spend any of his lunch hour near them, but Jack had nearly jumped outta his skin. Doogie smile ruefully. At least it's not me, this time.

He decided to spare Jack some misery.

"We were just talking about my sister, Dr.Canfield."

"Yes, I am aware of that, Dr. Howser. Hence my comment."

How long had he been standing there? Or had the three been talking so loudly that the whole cafeteria had heard?

"Your father and I were speaking the other day," Canfield began, "and he mentioned that your sister is becoming increasingly…intolerable. Within the last couple of days, it seems."

Doogie grinned. "No, not within the last couple of days. Jane's been intolerable for quite a while. It's just in the past couple of days that she's gotten worse. Dad's the one who can't tolerate it."

Dr. Canfield's eyebrows raised for a moment. "I see." Then he looked at Jack. Looked at him for a long while, as if trying to figure something out. Then abruptly he said,

"Nurse Spaulding, would you come to my office as soon as your lunch break is over?"

Without waiting for an answer, he walked away.

Jack fell back into his seat and let out a long breath.

Doogie looked at Curly. "What's that about?"

She shugged, but looked worried. "I don't know," she answered.

"So, basically what you're telling me is… everyone around you is crazy?"

She eyeballed him. "Are you sure it's not just you?"

Doogie blinked.

"In that case, maybe I should go to a different hospital- just to be safe."

Doogie popped one of the cherry tomatoes from her salad into his mouth.

"Well, here," she shoved the plate at him, "just take the whole thing, why don't you?"

"Sorry." He swallowed the tomato. "It's just that you get better food up here than we do."

"Hmm." She pursed her lips and stared at him. She wasn't buying it.

"Ya know, I think you and my sister'd get along really well."

"Oh really? So, you think I'm a bratty snob who snaps on people?"

Well, you got the last part right, Doogie thought.

"No, no. That's not what I meant. You just seem kinda similar, that's all."

"She doesn't even like ballet," she stated calmly, and again, you're just saying I'm a brat." Her lips were pursed to one side and one eyebrow was cocked.

He groaned in defeat. "I'm sorry okay? Maybe she could learn something from you, that's all."

"Like what?" Her voice was high pitched and disbelieving.

Doesn't she know how to take a compliment? Or let something go?

He shook his head. "Never mind."

He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. And changed the subject.

"So, how are you doing? What has the director said? Anything?"

He watched her shoulders drop, and knew immediately that he'd asked the wrong questions, changed the subject to the wrong thing. Way to go, Howser.

"Oh, I'm just dandy. Cooped up in here all day and all night for days on end. Lovely, just lovely."

"I thought you wanted to be here?"

" I did," she ansered, "at first."

She sighed softly and and adjusted herself in the bed. "I'm sure my muscles are starting to atrophy from lack of use," she laughed. It was a forced laugh.

"What's the matter?" He asked.

She looked at her knees, and addressed them as she spoke. "I realized that the ballet director was responsible for a lot of my problem. I mean, he did tell me I was too fat."

Doogie's eyeballs widened. She looked like a skeleton! Her chart had her weight in at 99 pounds.

"When did he say that?"

"Three pounds ago." Her voice was dead flat.

He blinked.

"So he knew what he was doing? He knew you were already at an unhealthy weight."

"Of course he knew!" She sat up straight, and glared at Doogie, her voice full of venom and disgust. She stared at him then, as though he were an alien from a different world. Then she pursed her lips together in the middle, and lay back on her pillows.

"He just didn't care," she whispered. "He doesn't care."

She took a sip of water. "He got the receptionist to inform me that my actions have reflected poorly upon the ballet company."

What actions? That she'd tried to lose weight as she'd been told to do- at an already malnourished weight? That she saw what she was doing to herself as wrong? Or, that she'd tried to do something about it? Oh, no, Doogie shook his head- that her actions admitting herself to the hospital, acknowledged the fact that the ballet company supported deadly practices. She'd revealed the truth.

"So.." he prompted.

She gave a tiny smile. It quickly faded, and she shrugged.

"I got fired, Doogie."

He blinked.

" From your stand-point that means I'll be out of your hair in a couple of hours."

"What? You can't leave! You're no-where near-"

"Doogie, I don't have insurance- effective today. Your hospital doesn't take people without insurance. It's not like I really need more help anyway. I came here to get a break. And I did. Well over a week. I just didn't expect it to be a permanent one."

"But, but," his mouth hung open as Doogie tried to think of something to say. This wasn't right. It couldn't be tolerated. Could it?

To keep himself busy in the hours he was sure Ashley was leaving or had just left he'd stitched up a young carpenter's hand, drained a really nasty abcess, lost a patient in cardiac arrest, and set a broken leg. And now he had to deal with an increasingly more taxing issue.

"Doogie, where are you going?"

He turned and waved at Curly as he headed out the door.

"I have to pick up Jane at school, no one else can do it."

"But you still have at least 3 more hours or work!"

"I know. I'm bringing Jane here."

"Oh." Surprise registered on her face.

"And when I get back," he called over his shoulder, "tell me what the heck you and Canfield were talking about for over an hour!"


	10. 10

He hadn't mentioned it. And now, as a full two weeks had gone by since the...incident, Doogie didn't feel like divulging the information. After all, no one had gotten hurt. Besides, Jane was in enough trouble as it was, what with Dad so unwilling to forget or forgive Jane's abscence from school weeks back.

But now...maybe he should have said something right when it happened. His silence just meant that he was now in trouble as well.

And... judging from the stand-off he'd once again walked into, maybe he should have taken on an extra shift at the hospital.

"So, you talk about me behind my back?" Jane's voice still took on a high-pitched tone when she was upset, just as it had when she was younger.

"WEll, Jane, perhaps if you didn't do things to make people talk about you"

"So your life's so boring you don't have anything of your own to talk about?"

Dad sighed. "With you Jane, I assure you, life is never boring."

"So glad I could entertain you." She bit off the words with such disgust and loathing Doogie felt he needed to push again a wall of hatred just to get to the stairway. This time he was not going to be caught in the middle- even if it was somewhat his fault this time.

"And," she continued, "I didn't do anything wrong! Find something else to talk about!"

"Nothing wrong?" Dad scoffed. "You skipped school, you lied to us, and now I hear-"

"I didn't skip school!" She cut him off.

That gave Doogie pause. So far he hadn't heard her deny or confirm much of anything.

"And even if I did- get over it, okay? Geez! How much longer are you gonna hang this over my head?"

Dad's face clouded with rage...but only for a moment. THen it seemed to light up with the internal glow of the triumphant.

Uh oh.

"Well," David paused a moment as if in thought, "now...let's see.." he seemed to make a mental calculation," I think about a month more. And that gives you...let's see..." he grinned horribly, "four months total."

"What!" She screeched. Knowing as well as any Howser child that argument and opinion were futile, she pounded past Doogie on the stairs and slammed her bedroom door shut with such force that Doogie felt the floor shudder.

David turned to Doogie on the steps. He grinned his best faux gracious grin and put a hand to his shoulder. "So, Douglas...would you care to shed some light on this situation?"

He groaned. "Dad, I don't think it's really...it's not.."

David looked at him pointedly.

"Now."

Doogie sighed. Genius or not, doctor or not, he still was treated like a little kid. And he hated it. Especially when it meant he was in trouble.

Maybe it was due to being so pre-occupied with Ashley's unexpected discharge. He'd spent all day reminding himself, "I'm a doctor, she's a patient. I can't help everyone. This sort of thing happens all the time….but that still doesn't make it right." And, as wrapped up in his self talk as he was, it was an understandable mistake that he missed several keys things that went on in the hospital that day, discussions that happened right in front of his face.

He saw everything that went on. And thinking about it, he could remember that he saw them. But not what had really taken place, he hadn't been paying enough attention. The police being there. Dr. Canfield yelling angrily at Jack to deliver some missing medical records. Curly looking stricken- well, Doogie'd noticed that. He'd even pulled her aside to ask about it- which if he recalled correctly, had been right after her meeting with Dr. Canfield. She looked even more upset with his attentions, but chalked it all up to stress, unions, and having to work another double shift. He didn't exactly believe her, but he'd dropped the issue for her sake, not wanting to upset her further. He didn't see the events as related at all, so he had ignored them easily enough. After all, genius that he was, he still couldn't be expected to know about everything that went on at the hospital, it was a big place after all.

The last words he's spoken were to Curly, demanding that she tell him what she's been talking to Canfield about.

And nearly the first words out of his mouth when he got back were to call Security. On his own sister. How bad did that look? Bad enough for word to get back to his father- even though no phone call home from the security office had been made, someone obviously had called. And Doogie had no doubt who'd made the call.

"Douglas? I'm waiting."

Doogie glanced back up the stairs, trying to buy a few more seconds of time.

"Now, Douglas!"

He sighed. All he could say was the truth. After all, Dr. Canfield had called anyhow, good buddies that the two were.

"Dad, I don't know. I walked in with Jane- she was going to hang out in the waiting area or the cafeteria or the nurses station- where-ever. She was fine with it."

"Was she upset when you picked her up?"

_Yes. _

_Jane rolled her eyes. Apparently the old doctor and the young genius had yet to figure out that the stairwell was a sound tunnel? And that their every word carried easily to her room? All she had to do was place her ear to the door- which she wasn't above doing. After all, she needed to know what they thought of her, and if they were somehow thinking of sending her to a detention center or something._

"No," he answered. "She was fine. Normal. Not upset. She just got in the car and asked how long my shift lasted till. She didn't seem upset."

_Jane sighed. They had no idea how hard middle school was. Her day had sucked, pure and simple. What most kids would consider a fantasy trip to the cool crowd- she found to be pure hell. She didn't ask for it. Any of it. But they thought what they wanted to. She was no longer "Dork's dumb sister," or the Dork Dud.Word had gotten around now. She was a cool kid._

"So? What happened?"

Doogie shrugged. "I introduced her to everyone, the nurses, and candystripers and all that.." he closed his eyes for a moment trying to think. "Then we got to the front desk and Curly and Jack were up there talking."

"And?"

This was the part he was sure Dr. Canfield hadn't mentioned. Well, he couldn't. He wasn't there yet.

"Well, she saw them, and..and she, well, she backed up, she backed away. She said she was going to go downstairs. She moved pretty quick."

_But for some reason- McGuire had moved faster. He had been nothing but confused. And amazed. Jane'd been known to win every foot race and gym track contest she'd ever entered. But suddenly there was Jack, blocking Jane's way._

_Doogie'd immediately gotten the feeling that something was wrong. But, Jack glossed that feeling over, using the tone he used often on some of the nurses._

"_Hey, Jane, wait up! We haven't seen you in a while!"_

_Doogie recalled the whole scene suddenly as if it were a scripted diaglouge. _

"_Get away from me." Jane's voice sounded dead serious._

_Doogie was thinking then of Jane and a small child. She was never afraid of strangers. Heck, she was never afraid of anything. She often did and said the things that Doogie sometimes wished he could. Like talking back to Dad. Not that it ever got her anywhere, but still…_

_Yet she seemed almost afraid of Jack McGuire- but was trying her best not to show it. And she was doing well. He doubted if anyone else could tell. In fact, he was sure they couldn't._

_Curly was over by them now, smiling._

"_Hi Jane. How's school going?"_

_Jane looked at her with a glare, glanced at Doogie, and in that instant he saw her demeanor change. _

"_It was great," she smiled. "I"ve got a ton of homework to do though," she heafted her bookbag, "so, I was, I am just going to head downstairs to work on it. It's due tomorrow."_

_She turned away from them all then, and reached out for the stairway handle._

_Jack grabbed it first. _

"_I'm sure that homework can wait for a few minutes."  
"Yeah," Doogie'd said, "you can say hi. You haven't seen Jack or Curly in forever." What he was thinking was, "don't be rude. You're embarrassing me."_

_Jane gave him a sideways glare and sneared at him._

"_We'd uh, we'd like to have a chat. Like the Doogmeister said, Curly and I haven't seen you in a while."_

"_Yeah," she scoffed, "right." She pushed Jack's hand from the door. "I have to go."_

"_Jane!" Doogie'd yelled. He couldn't believe how rude she was being. However, it did let him know that her current rudeness, which really hadn't changed the whole month since she'd been caught skipping school, was not limited solely to family members. _

"_Doogie! I don't have time! I've got stuff to do, okay?" She spun on her heel and walked away from them._

_Jack stopped her. Doogie remembered how amazed he was that Jack could keep up with Jane. He knew high school kids who couldn't. He made a mental note to ask Jack if he'd been on the track team in college or high school. _

"_We really need to talk," Jack's tone changed from suave and chummy to his usual work tone- serious._

"_I don't have anything to say to you," she'd answered. "I don't need to talk."_

"_Jack!" Curly stepped in, a hand to Jack's shoulder. She smiled at him sweetly. "Why don't you and Doogie get back to work? I'll chat with Jane and fill you in later, okay?"_

_She turned to Jane. "How's that work for you Jane?" She asked._

"_It doesn't." Her tone was flat, her lips pursed, her arms crossed over her chest._

"Jack wouldn't leave her alone. He said he had to talk to her. Jane told him to get his hands off her-"

"And that's when she grabbed the scalpel?"

Doogie shrugged, embarrassed by his own role in the mess. "They shouldn't leave those things lying around," he forced a laugh.

Dad wasn't amused. "No, they shouldn't, he answered.

"And you didn't think this was important enough to tell me about when it happened? Two weeks ago?"

"I, uh," Doogie looked at the floor, "well, no. I, I thought I handled it."

"She became so violent-"

"Embarassing," he corrected.

"That you couldn't even keep her in the security office. And that's why you came home early from your shift."

_Her trick had worked. And they thought Doogie was the only genius in the family! True, she'd only been trying to keep Jack away from her, he should have listened, but she didn't think she'd be in the security office for it either. And she hadn't really intended to cut him with the scalpel or anything. That was embarrassing. She could tell Doogie was furious- it was him who sent her there. With Doctor Canfield watching. He'd come out of his office at the commotion. She almost laughed thinking that nearly every problem on that floor of the hospital was somehow related to Doogie Howswer. And, she was. _

_However, once she was alone in the security office, she realized that Jack could use that as an excuse- and she wouldn't be able to get away from him there. He'd said things to her, under his breath, that only she could hear, even while they were fighting. So that even right in front of Doogie he had no idea. Tests my ass she thought, like I was gonna let him do that. No thanks. I've had enough. To hell with the cops too- they can't arrest me. _

_But that's when she'd made her move. She threw such a huge fit that the old man in the security office who was supposed to watch her- while he was watching all the videos on the tv screens- called up to Doogie and demanded that he take his "hysterical kid sister" home. All before she'd been there for five minutes. She'd been right too. As Doogie was escorting her out, she saw Jack McGuire walking towards the office from the opposite end of the hallway. But he didn't see them. He was too busy looking at files: hers. She was glad to be out of there._

_Which was why being in trouble now didn't really bother her. It was a small price to pay._


	11. Chapter 11

His eyes opened, and Doogie lay on his back, staring at the dark ceiling, thinking. Last night- he glanced at the clock- he'd awoken at the same time. He couldn't find anything that would have woken him. No lights were on, no cars going down the street outside, Vinnie wasn't knocking at his window, nothing. But he could have sworn that what woke him today was the sound of …something. Not a loud sound at all, but a sound.

He strained his ears to pick up sound, anything. But there was nothing. After listening, motionless, for five minutes, exhausted, he finally shook his head and lay it back on his pillow. must be the echos of the hospital he thought yawning wide. Too much work.

A few hours later, Doogie plopped himself down at the breakfast table, and was surprised to only see his mother there. Usually Jane was an early riser. And on occasion, had been known to voluntarily help with the making of meals.

"Where's Jane?"

"She's staying home today," Mom answered, her back to him while she worked at the stove.. "She's not feeling well."

"Oh."

"What?"

Doogie groaned and dropped his head on the table top. Not again, he thought.

Dad walked in, well, stormed in was more like it,really.

"What do you mean she's not going to school today?"

Doogie watched him step back a few paces and tilt his head in the direction of the stairway.

"Jane Katherine Howser!" His voice echoed and richoched off the walls. Doogie groaned again.

"David?"

Doogie lifted his head at Mom's tone. Hmm.

Dad turned back to them, to her. "Yes, dear?" He wore a smile on his face, the smile that reall wasn't.

Mom turned away from the stove, a spatula in hand. Her face was dead-pan.

"Drop it!" she ordered, then turned her attention back to the eggs in the pan on the stove, as if nothing had happened.

Doogie watched David open his mouth to object, then closed it again with a shocked look on his face. He bit his lip to keep from laughing aloud. But a smirk still showed.

"Don't start, young man," Dad pointed warningly at him.

He smiled more broadly and shrugged his shoulders, hands open in innocence.

David glanced once more at Katherine, then shook his head, giving up, apparently.

"I'm going to work," he muttered the words, and was on his way out the door almost before he finished speaking.

"Bye," Mom called after him, not taking her attention from breakfast.

Doogie laughed aloud.

A plate was plopped down in front of him. Scrambled eggs and a fork, along with a glass of milk.

Doogie grabbed the fork and

"Hey!" A hand held his hand down.

"That's not for you!" Mom pursed her lips and nodded her head in the direction of the stairs. "Take those up to your sister."

A bit upset to be rebuked like that, Doogie slowly picked up the plate in one hand, and the glass in the other.

"You're welcome," he muttered as he walked carefully up the stairs.

"Thanks, Doogie!" Mom called back, her tone sugary sweet.

He rolled his eyes, but couldn't help smiling.

The familiar smell of formaldahyde hit his nose the minute he opened the stairwell doors. He hated it. The smell was the main reason he avoided having to do any work on this floor. Even though the morgue took up only a part of the floor, it's smell was a gift given freely the the whole floor, and often the stairwell as well. He'd always hated it.

That prank with Vinnie, and the anticipated reaction from McGuire had made the place bearable for a short time, but that was it.

The hallway was quiet,which was typical, given the floors' task and duties. Solmn. Two doors before the morgue itself he stopped. This was "the closet". The room where clothing of the deceased, and some living patients were kept, should someone be in need of them. Occationally, and they were given to homeless that came through, looking for jobs, mostly though, the clothing went to the local thrift stores as donations.

He walked in, and the smell of must, fabric, and still, lingering formaldahyde filled his nostrils.

He put a hand to a pair of slacks hanging on the rack nearest him. He rubbed the fabric between his fingers, then lifted it to his nose- it reeked. He jerked his head away. Ugh!

"Hey!"

Doogie yelled, dropped the pant leg and jumped in his skin.

As a hand touched his shoulder, Doogies spun around, his eyes wide, thinking of all the horror movies he'd ever seen. So far none had started in the clothing and storage room of a mortuary, but it might be a good place for one.

He let out a sigh of relief and closed his eyes exstatic that he wasn't going to die.

"Curly." He stared at her wide eyed.

She grinned semi-apologetically.

"Didn't mean to scare you," she replied.

Doogie rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, right."

she shrugged.

"What are you doing in here?"

He looked at her hard. "What are you doing in here," he countered.

He looked past her to the door and tried to think of the number of times that Curly would actually be called down here to work. It was nearly a negative digit.

He looked back at Curly suspiciously.

"DId you follow me?" He asked.

His brain ventured to other kinds of movies now. But he was sure no romance of any kind started on a morgue floor. At least, not any he'd ever want to become involved in.

"I asked a question first." She smiled sweetly.

He looked at the pant leg, and thought back to the clothes in the laundry basket- the clothes that used to be there, that is. He'd only seen them once.

"I was just looking for.." he paused, not knowing what to say. He couldn't think of a way to explain how his sister had gotten ahold of clothes that surely must have come from this closet.

he shrugged and plowed ahead anyway.

"You haven't seen," he thought back again, "a pair of acid washed blue jeans and a hot pink top in here, have you?"

She glanced around hesitantly,reluctantly. "I uh, don't spend much time in here Doog. I couldn't tell you what they have in here." She made a face, then looked back at the door. "I'd rather not know."

She looked pointedly at him. "Can we get out of here?"

He nodded to the door.

As they both walked into the hall he turned to her.

"IF you wanted to get out of there so fast, what were you doing there in the first place? Here, on this floor?"

"You still haven't answered my question."

He shook his head, realizing he'd never get a straight answer out of her. "It doesn't matter, Curly. Just forget about it."

He started down the hall towards the stairway, no longer caring to know why she'd been following him. His mind was racing, now that he knew for certain where the clothes had come from. Well, he amended, not for certain, but the smell of that room had given a much stronger base for his previous belief. Those clothes looked like clothes that Jane would wear, but they were not hers, and they did indeed smell like the floor of the morgue.

Once they were walking up the stairs he spoke, addressing the wall ahead of him.

"So, you were following me?"

Curly cocked her head towards him and laughed. "I just came down to see what you were up to. McGuire thought you were planning another prank."

Doogie smiled and couldn't help laughing.

"That was a long time ago!" He insisted. "Can't you both forget about it?"

She put a hand to his shoulder to stop him from continuing up to the next stair.

"You scared me to death Doogie!" She cried. "I won't forget that anytime soon!"

"And I won't forget the prank you played on me- that McGuire helped plan out," he muttered.

He could see out of the corner of his eye, Curly's smirk.

"So we're even?" She asked.

He nodded sternly. "We're even."

Still haven't forgotten that one, he thought. And, I don't think I wanna let it go anytime soon, either.

"Ya know, you should bring your sister around again," Curly commented as they were halfway up the stairs.

Doogie stopped on his step and stared at her.

"You're kidding me, right?" He laughed and shook his head. "Do you want another blood bath?"

"Oh, Doogie, it wasn't that bad!" She admonished.

He looked at her, completly bewildered. "So, the fact that she cut Jack...that doesn't bother you?"

"It was an accident!"

He glanced sideways at her. "Don't be so sure," he muttered.

She rumpled his hair. "I am sure. Everyone likes your sister, Doog. I wouldn't mind seeing her again myself."

He shook his head, then put a hand to her forehead.

"I think you're coming down with something Curly."

He continued shaking his head up the last flight of steps to the unit doors.

"Hey Doogie!" He felt McGuire clap his hand on his shoulder before he heard the words. He knew it was McGuire. Other than himself, no other doctor in the hospital seemed to be anywhere near so lighthearted. So..juvenile. Not that he cared, it was fun.

Doogie watched McGuire rifle through charts before claiming three of them. He grinned when he saw Doogie standing before him.

"Hey, how's it going? Got a little worried when I heard you were headed down to the morgue. I mean, if you're feeling that down, I can always take over for you- there's no need to," he sliced his first finger across his throat, "to get your point across."

"Funny McGuire," he rolled his eyes, "very funny."

"How's your sister doing?"

Doogie thought McGuire's tone had turned serious. He blinked and looked at him again, but McGuire was guiless, smiling just as before.

"Fine. Wrecking havoc as usual."

Jack nodded knowingly. "Ah, the teenage years," he sighed dramaticly. Overly. "How fast they do go by."

Doogie couldn't help but grin. "She's not a teenager yet."

"Oh. That's right."

He could have sworn that Jack's voice had turned serious again. But just as he looked at him, Jack moved from behind the desk, walked into the hall where Doogie was standing, and added,

"Ah, the pre-teen years," he repeated his overly dramatic sigh, "how fast they do go by." This time he batted his eyes for emphasis.

Doogie shook his head and shoved him away.

Jack laughed as he walked away down the hall. Then he spun on his heel and faced Doogie again. He walked backwards as he said, "You should bring your sister around here again."

Doogie blinked in disbelief and glanced quickly at Curly, whose expression was blank, then back at McGuire.

"So she can hurt you worse?"

McGuire held up his nearly healed hand as proof, "No, so we can have a re-match."

Doogie shook his head again and turned away.

"Dr. McGuire!"

Doogie looked back at the sound of Dr. Canfield's voice.

He saw the man storming down the hall in Jack's direction.

"I want those records!"

Jack held up his palms innocently.

"Dr. Canfield, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Damn it, McGuire, don't play games with me! There are no Doe patients in this hospital! There are cops hounding me left and right and I've got nothing to give them! If you wanted to play doctor with some homeless nameless person, fine, but then you've got the cops involved...

"That wasn't my fault!" He called back.

Canfield ignored the interruption. "I want that record and I want it now! Name, date, etc, in short- evidence-on my desk!"

McGuire shrugged innocently, turned his back on the man and conintued down the hall.

Doogie stood stock-still for a moment and registered the changing looks on Curly's face. From the moment she'd heard Canfield, to the moment Jack refused blame, to the moment she realized Doogie was staring at her. Fear, guilt or maybe shame, and then definite guilt and pity.

He looked back at McGuire's figure walking away, to Canfield walking briskly down the hall away from Jack. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stick up. Being in the morgue, Curly going after him, Jack making the same bizarre request as Curly had, and now cops and hidden medical records?

He looked sideways at Curly who was looking at the floor, her face red.

there's something wrong here, he thought. Something very, very wrong.


	12. Chapter 12

"Doogie, you made him feel dumb!" The high pitched voice of wisdom that was his kid sister, insisted.

"You were making fun of him. You wanted to make him feel bad because you felt that he insulted you."

He could feel his mouth turning into a grim line. He hated to admit it, but she was right. He kept his eyes on the road. One more mile, he thought, and she's home. I can go back to work- and, he added, contrary to what either McGuire or Curly wish- without her.

Dad had sent her back to school that day, much to Jane's whine and protest.

"Even though you felt snubbed, insulted, and obviously more vulnerable because you were out of your own element and outnumbered at that, among peers that you could never quite feel at ease and equal with-

"That's enough okay? I get the point." He rolled his eyes. Although annoyed, he hadn't missed, never missed,the fact that his sister was more intuitive and articulate than most adults he knew. And sometimes, just sometimes he hated her for it. For, once in a long while she would preach at him- and she was always right.

"Well, you still had the upper hand. You were the power in that room. You are a doctor, he knew that. He knew that that made you better than him-"

"But it doesn't!" He insisted.

"Yes," she corrected him slowly but it was clear she was losing patience, " it does. Maybe not in your fantasy everyone is equal world- but in the real world, in his world, where he has to be the boss because that's all he feels that he has- it is true."

"And you used that power that leverage, to try and get the upper hand to pay him back by making him feel smaller. You insulted him, and it was in front of all of his peers. How was he going to be able to live that down? He wasn't," she answered her own question without hesitation. "So he used the only thing he knew to be able to hold his head up high and gain the advantage over you. You forced him into a corner. And maybe you didn't know it, and you didn't because all you were thinking about was yourself and your own hurt feelings- you made him fight you. "

Okay, now that- that logic was wrong. Completely. Doogie raised a hand to object, but Jane motioned it away.

"And," she emphasised, "you're a doctor- calling him stupid. A doctor is generally acknowledged to know more about everything than anyone else in the world, genius or not. A doctor's words are taken seriously-"

"Jane, I don't think-"

"Shut up! I'm not finished." She glared at him.

"And if you, a doctor, not only think, but announce his stupidity, your diagnosis- well then it has to be true. And not only that, but you ridiculed him- you made fun of him for it. Something that he has probably felt inferior for and insecure about for all his life. I bet someone told him he was dumb when he was a little kid, and he took it to heart. And he's probably heard nothing but that his whole life. Do you think he needed to hear that from you, too? Can you imagine how much something like that must hurt? "

She stopped then and looked at him. Then she rolled her eyes in disgust.

"No," she answered her own questin again, dryly this time, "you can't." She lowered her voice and added, "You have no idea what it's like to be stupid."

He opened his mouth, sensing that some sort of apology was in line, although he wasn't quite sure why

"Oh my god! Pull over"

He glanced over for a split second, saw Jane with one hand over her mouth and the other on the car's door. He immediately swerved the car into a pull-off lane, tires squealing at the abrupt movement. He hadn't even stopped the car before Jane swung the door open, jumped out and threw up in the grass that grew alongside the highway. He was oddly thankful that they hadn't been driving along a residential road, where'd she'd have most likely thrown up in someone's yard. Then the thought vanished. Doogie quickly opened his seatbelt, opened the car door to check on her- and almost got hit by a passing pick up truck. In his haste, he'd forgotten to check the road. Real smooth Howser, he thought. And as the truck's horn blared off into the distance, he hurried around the car to Jane.

He found he knelt in the grass, heard her snuffling back tears, and…could see what they'd served for lunch at the middle school that day.

He grimaced.

Macaroni and cheese today?"

She didn't even lift her head, but he knew she was glaring at him. "Not funny," her voice sounded tired, and miserably sick.

"Here," he put an arm around her shoulders, grabbed a kleenex out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her, "at least you can wipe your mouth out."

"Gross."

He smiled thinly. "Let's get you home, okay?"

He felt her shoulders collapse in against his arm, and could tell how very tired she was. After helping her to her feet- careful not to look at the grass as he did so, he helped her back to the car.

"I'll roll the window down," he offered as he did so himself, " the air should do you good."

She barely nodded, looking like she could vomit again at any moment.

"I told you I was still sick," she insisted, "told ya I shoulda still stayed home today."

Doogie shook his head as he shut the door behind her. He walked around to his side of the car and slide in before adding, "No, you didn't. You told mom and dad. Not me."

She shrugged. "Whatever. I still am."

He laughed. "Obviously." He sighed as he started the car again and looked over at his sister. "Mac and cheese though, well, I can see how that'd make anyone sick." He leaned over and put a hand to her forehead. He nodded. "You definitely feel warm."

She shrugged again and closed her eyes. " Just take me home, Doogie," she whispered.

And with that, he knew their month's old argument over Doogie's old "sex ed" fight was over. And she won. Again. He shook his head and put the car into gear.

"She threw up? Well, it's not surprising, considering what they're passing off as food at schools nowadays. Airline coach section has better nutritional value. How they expect any child to learn and function on-"

"David," Mom smiled at Dad and put a hand to his shoulder, silencing him. "We all appreciate your beliefs on the public school systems' nutritional department…but you're better served helping humanity in the way of your practice."

"Oh sure, and who's going to help those kids when they get to be our age? If they get to be our age," he added. "Who's going to help them with the crippling diseases that could have been caused by eating years worth of-"

"Dad!" Doogie laughed helplessly at his father's mini-sermon. "She's not dying. She's probably just got some stomach bug."

"Probably, Douglas? Probably? Would you go to one of your patients with a diagnosis like Probably?"

Doogie continued to laugh and shook his head helplessly.

"David," Katherine smiled. "Let it alone. I'll take care of Jane. I'm sure she did pick it up at school, just as you said- but she's not going to die from it. Doogie's had more than one stomach bug, and look at him." She grinned at Doogie.

At least he's not mad at her anymore, now that he's convinced she's not faking it. And frankly, thinking back on his experience back to high school that he and Jane had been 'discussing' , if her experiences in middle school were anything similar- he wouldn't blame her if she did play sick. Especially if there were boys like Tank at her school.


	13. Chapter 13

Doogie's eyes opened. His sleep disturbed once again. But at least this time, he knew what it was that disturbed it. It was a door. The sound of a door closing. Doogie sighed in relief, happy to know that he wasn't going insane, rolled back into his pillow and immediatly fell back to sleep.

"Hey, how's it going Howser?"

"Huh?"

He squinted as he looked up from the bed to the window, and saw, among other things that it was open.

"Time to rise and shine, doctor!"

He groaned.

"Vinnie, go away."

"Not a chance, Howser. The only half day of school? And you think I'm gonna waste time sleeping? Nope! I go to see my bestest bud and pal, the great Doctor Howser- junior." He grinned.

"Vinnie! I mean it! This is the only day I get to sleep past sunrise."

Vinnie laughed and Doogie cringed and groaned inwardly knowing his friend wasn't going anywhere.

"It's eight o'clock!Way past sunrise!"

Doogie threw the comforter back over his head.

"Is Jane up?" He asked, his question muffled by pillow.

"Her?" Vinnie chuckled. "She's at school. I saw Mrs. H takin' her there a few minutes ago."

Tossing the comforter away, Doogie finally sat up. "But she's supposed to be home sick."

Vinnie shrugged. "If it makes you feel better, she didn't look too happy about it."

He cocked an eyebrow at his friend.

"You were spying on them?"

"Hey!" He took a few steps back, hand over his heart. "I'm offended! Spying?" He shook his head. "It's careful surveliance. A neccessary skill to develop for the film world. I observe."

He plopped down on the bed. "And lucky for you I just happened to report my observations to you."

Doogie shrugged. "I guess this means Dad's gone by now too."

Vinnie grinned. "You got it." He scrambled up again and grabbed a nerf basketball, aiming it at Doogie. "How much time ya got before you have to be at the hospital?"

Doogie sighed, then yawned and stretched his arms outward. "I gotta get going pretty soon."

Just as he spoke, his alarm clock went off. Vinnie pounded it off, and as he did so, Doogie knew his friend wouldn't be too keen on being left alone. And immediatly, an idea popped into his head.

He stood up and made his way to the bathroom to shower.

"Hey, you're not getting away that easily," Vinnie spoke up. Doogie smiled, and turned around.

"What are you talking about?"

Narrowing his eyes, Vinnie examined him. "You've got something up your sleeve, Doog, and it's serious. You've got a devious lil' mind growing in there!" He tapped Doogie's skull for emphasis.

Doogie feigned annoyance. "I don't know what you mean."

"Oh come on Doog, don't play innocent with me! What's going on? Tell me! Come on, I've got four hours to kill till I have to go to school!"

Doogie gave him a sidelong glance. "Alright, but it isn't going to be pretty."

Vinnie rubbed his hands together. "I'm gettin' goosebumps. What is it? A hidden body? Exposing an affair? What?"

"I have to get ready for work, and you've got time to kill." He took a deep breath. "I need you to look around Jane's room for something...something that smells."

Vinnie wrinkled his nose. "Hey, Doog, I'm not goin' through your sister's stuff. I gotta draw the line somewhere. Now, Mrs. Howser.."

"Please, Vinnie, I wanna be able to eat breakfast," he grimaced. "And you don't have to go through anything, really, just look, open doors, drawers- don't rifle through anything if that makes you feel better. Just use your nose."

Vinnie looked confused but intrigued. "And uh, what is my nose is lookin' for?"

"Something that smells like... like a frog ready for discection." Then he remembered the perfume. "Or something that smells like your mother's perfume!" He grinned at the swift comparison.

Vinnie made a face. "That's easy. I can smell that stuff a mile away."

"Exactly. So, you see, this shouldn't be hard at all."

"Hey, Doog!"

"Doog!"

Doogie stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in a terry robe and rubbing his hair with a towel. Steam accompanied him out the door.

"What is it?"

"I think I found something." Vinnie's face looked pale. Doogie hurried after him.

"What," he pointed to the top shelf of Jane's closet, "is that thing?"

As Doogie squinted in wonderment, Vinnie added, "I know you said smell, and that thing don't, but, it just looks suspicious."

Doogie looked at him.

"I know you said not to rifle through stuff, so I wasn't going to touch it- your sis' room's a mess, by the way," he added, "but nothing in the room smelled, or looked unusual, but that," he pointed again to the closet.

What he pointed at was Jane's comforter, balled up. Vinnie was right, it was suspicious. Bed linens were Mom's pride. That comforter should be in the linen closet if it was clean and not being used, or in the laundry if it was dirty.

Doogie grabbed a broom stick Jane'd made into a prop for a play last semester, and knocked the comforter down. He watched Vinnie jump back a mile and laugh.

"Hey, you never know what's in there- it could be a-"

"Ugh!" Both boys cried out at once at the smell. Vinnie held his nose.

"Is that," he pointed, head tilted as far away as possible, "the smells you were talking about?"

Doogie nodded grimly. "I think so." Carefully, Doogie opened the balled up thing- and found a black garbage bag.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Vinnie asked, a whole sleeve over his nose.

Doogie chuckled at the sight, then coughed as the smell hit him more strongly.

"Doogie?"

Both Doogie and Vinnie froze.

"YOur mom!" Vinnie hissed, staring at the door.

But from the sounds of it, she was still downstairs.

"Help me!" Doogie pulled at the comforter, and Vinnie helped him heave it back up onto the shelf.

"How's it look?" He meant did it look like Vinnie Delpino had messed with it, but already Doogie could hear his mother's footsteps on the stairs.

"No time!" He hissed back, and shoved Vinnie to the door.

They had both stepped into the hall just as Mom turned the corner of the stair and saw them.

"Well, hello Mrs. Howser," Vinnie grinned.

Surprise registered on her face, but she smiled. "Hello Vincent. No school today?"

He shook his head. "There's some senior thing- we underclassmen don't have to show up until noon."

"I see."

Doogie elbowed him. "I was just heading to work and Vinnie was just about to-"

"Go to school." He grinned and shrugged. "The sooner I get there, the better," he offered.

"You're going to work?" Mom asked.

"Yeah."

She glanced at his feet. "Like that?"

Doogie looked down, and saw to his embarassment that he was still barefooted and in his robe.

"Oh! Well, after I change, that is."

Katherine glanced at Vinnie again.

"I uh, better be going then, see you later Doog." He waved to him, but Doogie could almost hear him asking about the bag in Jane's room. He just shrugged at him, knowing that was a question that would have to be answered later.

"Goodbye Vinnie," Mom waved back at him as he headed back to Doogie's room to descend from the window.

Doogie just stood there in front of his mother, as if rooted in place. She looked at him oddly for a moment, then sniffed.

"New cologne?"

He forced a laugh, secretly praying that he and Vinnies escapade hadn't forced the smell to leak out into the room itself- at least not for long. Undisturbed it seemed not to smell, at least not for the moment. Besides, he couldn't risk anyone finding it before he had a chance to look at whatever was in the bag.

"Yeah mom, something like that."

She walked past him shaking her head. " I think it's time for a vacation, Doogie."

more soon. I promise.


	14. Chapter 14

More later. Too much school now. Speaking of which this is chock full of grammatical errors. Even more than usual. But…. I don't really care. And neither should you. ;)

He heard it. And knew it was Jane. Heard the sound of her bedroom door opening, her footsteps in the hall…the bathroom door opening and closing. Of course, it didn't take genius to figure this out. Jane was the only member of the household who did not have a bathroom in her bedroom.

Maybe I should trade her rooms.

The second his thought registered, a chill ran up his spine and into his scalp. He shivered and his body felt suddenly frozen as though suspended in time. And in that moment, he knew it was true.

He didn't want to. Every fiber in his body was begging him to stay in bed, to return to sleep. Because then this could all be a dream. He could push it aside and away and deny it. But if he moved, if he followed his first instinct, then it would all be real. And he couldn't stop it. But with horror-filled reluctance, Doogie commanded his body to get out of bed. He shoved the covers away and stood up. He could feel his ribs expand and contract with each breath as he walked to the door. As he put his hand on the knob and turned it, he noted that everything at that moment seemed surreal. It was as though he were the only person alive- or at least, awake at this time of morning.

As he stepped softly into the hall, both time and reality slammed back into him. He heard what he knew he'd hear, what his common sense told him, what his training told him, and what his very heart and soul screamed could not, should not be true because he could not be hearing this. This could not be happening. But it was.

He felt like Tank had just punched him in the gut. The sound of his sister vomiting and then dry-heaving sent his own stomach to his throat, cutting off his air supply. Doogie squeezed his eyes shut.

This is a dream! He told himself. This has to be a dream! His eyes opened then, and he shook his head hard praying to see himself still in bed.

Hearing Jane again, his feet moved swiftly. And Doogie let them carry him back to his room- instead of into the bathroom to comfort his sister. There was something else he needed to do first.

He didn't think- much. Granted, he was aware of a deep sense of hurt, but that was swiftly being covered, enveloped and replaced by a growing sense of rage. Doogie yanked on the closest pair of pants he could find and then grabbed his keys. Instead of taking the stairs, he pulled a Delpino and was out of the house faster than Vinnie. After all, he knew exactly where he was going. And more importantly, who he would find when he got there.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter: Whatever it is.

Doogie didn't see anything as he strode through the hospital. He walked in a haze like a man possessed not changing his direction towards his target one iota. He stepped aside and moved for nothing and no one. People and things moved for him. And if anyone should get in his way, Doogie felt as though lightning could shoot from his eyes at any one foolish enough to try to interrupt or detain him.

Doogie's jaw clenched as he walked on blindingly as other thoughts had immerged and begun speaking to him. Saying things like this was his fault. Doogie glared hard at the blur of hallway in front of him as the thought pricked him again. And now it only served to make him even more furious. All the more reason to-

Target found. He shut off his thoughts, going straight to his gut feeling.

Jack had his back to him, head slightly in profile by the locker door. He was adjusting his jacket. And in one glorious moment Doogie felt as large and invincible as Tank as his fist collided with Jack's jaw. Instantly, Jack's head hit the side of the locker, the impact sending him rolling across the wall of lockers, stumbling over his feet.

Doogie kept after him, following his every motion.

"She's my sister!" He screamed. "My kid sister! How the hell could you do this?"

Jack's eyes made contact with his own, and they looked angry confused, and a bit frightened. Doogie's fists took the opportunity of Jack's frozen stance to impart more blows.

"How could you?" Doogie screamed in McGuire's face. He saw him flinch from the volume. Good, he thought, but there was no comfort or contentment in the thought.

"DOogie!" Jack's hands were at his shoulders, holding tight. He shook Doogie hard. "Get a hold of yourself!"

At that moment Doogie felt tears running down his cheeks. He jerked himself away from Jack, giving him a death glare as he did so. Angry that he had witnessed an emotion other than anger.

He felt as if he'd aged years and traveled miles in just those few moments. Exhausted, he sat down on the bench, feeling drained, and cradled his head in his hands.

"You son of a bitch," he whispered. "You son of a bitch."

"Doogie, what the hell are you talking about?" He heard McGuire's voice above him.

He straightened in a flash and looked back at Jack who was rubbing his jaw. He felt no remorse.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" He shouted.

Jack held his hands up, almost tauntingly. "Well, obviously I don't," he answered, "so why don't you fill me in?"

Doogie glared again, grabbed McGuire's sneaker that was seated beside him and with perfect aim hurled it at his left kidney.

He dodged it in the nick of time and charged at Doogie.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

Doogie felt lost. Furious, but lost. Thus, helpless. Exhausted.

"Jane. My sister.Jane."

He looked in Jack's eyes and saw that he finally understood. Saw the same look he'd seen in Curly's eyes. And it confirmed it all, again.

Jack knelt down so that they were at eye level and swallowed hard.

"I'm sorry Doogie." His voiced sounded unfamiliar, like an echo, or the memory of an echo. It was hoarse, dry, full of emotion but empty at the same time.

Doogie turned away from him then and shook his head. He remembered Wanda's words from over a year ago. _"I hate that you examined me the way that you did."_

He shook his head hard to get rid of the memory. Get control, he told himself. There are more important things here. It isn't about you. There are things you need to know. He knew he couldn't be bothered with emotions.

He took a deep breath and look Jack in the eye. "And you're the one," he swallowed, "you're the one that examined her." He shut his eyes tight, trying like hell not to think.

"Wait." He put a hand up before McGuire could respond. Not wanting to really hear an affirmation. "Let's just go from the beginning, okay?"

But he knew. He also knew he had to hear it from someone else.

Jack sighed, sat down next to him and looked at the floor. Then he sighed again.

"She was raped." His tone was flat, his words and perhaps emotions, controlled.

Doogie felt his stomach clench as he shut his eyes again. Don't speculate, don't think.

"She came in here…"

Doogie kept his eyes closed.

"….Curly.."

Take slow deep breaths. Ironically, he remembered, he'd given the exact same advice to a woman in labor two days earlier.

"I tried to find another doctor, a woman, but-"

"_I've seen a million patients."_ He shook his head. How ignorant. How naive. Arrogant even.

"..so Curly and I.."

Just breathe.

"…rape kit."

"…evidence…"

Breathe. Pretend this is happening to someone else.

" Her chart-"

The jelly doughnut. Doogie sighed as it all came together. The chart he'd grabbed. It was her chart. Jane's chart. He'd had it in his hands. She'd been right behind that door! So, where was he when she was being examined? Where was he when she was being- Stop. Just stop. Don't think about that.

"…so Canfield wouldn't know."

"_But you never saw me!"_

Doogie bit his lip hard, forcing himself back to the present.

"She's only twelve!" He meant to yell it, but the words only came out as barely a whisper. "I didn't even know she- mom said she'd started her," he took a breath, "just a little while back- she was upset because she's the baby," his speech was as fragmented and rushed as his thoughts, but he continued nonetheless knowing that Jack would understand. "She thought she was too young," he laughed in memory, or tried to, "but what are you gonna do? And she just gave her the Big Talk-" he paused, feeling his heart pounding and his knees hitting together.

"But this?" His voice reached a normal pitch. "And you? She's my sister Jack!" He exclaimed. "And you…you…" he couldn't continue, but he looked at Jack wide-eyed wanting an answer. Some other truth.

Jack shrugged helplessly.

"I tried to get Dr. Moreson, but she was busy. I thought it was better that I do it, me and Curly," he added, "then someone else- someone she didn't know, ya know?" He sighed, then shrugged. "Don't worry, I wasn't-" he looked at the floor, "I tried to be as…careful as I could."

He was being as politely vague as possible. As thought Doogie were a patient. As though Doogie didn't know full well what kind of experiences a first-time pelvic, especially a rape pelvic, involved.

"Look, I didn't want to, believe me." He looked at Doogie, pleading with his eyes for belief and forgivenness. "Neither did she for that matter."

Doogie tried to force a grin of understanding, but couldn't. But his mouth answered, "I can just imagine."

He shook his head. "No, wait, I don't want to."

Jack laughed. It was a forced laugh. "But hey, at least she came to us, right?"

Doogie didn't answer. The thought of Jack- and suddenly he knew exactly why Wanda hadn't wanted him to do her pelvic, and why her father was so angry.

Then he paused his train of thought. Sure, he didn't want to think about Jack- but that 's what he was focused on, wasn't it? But that wasn't the real issue. He turned to McGuire again.

"Can I see her charts?" He asked, knowing that thought he didn't want to see them, didn't want to have that much physical proof of it, he had to.

Jack looked away from him, focusing on the lockers in front of them instead.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Doog," he answered slowly. "You know, conflict of interest and all, patient confidentiality-"

Doogie made a sound of disdain. "You know that doesn't apply to minors! Especially not in situations like that!" Situation. He grimaced when he heard himself. This wasn't a situation, this was Jane!

Jack faced him again and put a hand to his shoulder. He waited till Doogie looked him in the eye before he spoke.

"I made her a promise."

Jack's face reflected a mixture of pain and compassion that Doogie knew he'd never willingly show to another peer. McGuire rarely let himself get emotionally involved, and he didn't show any other face but that of joviality to his peers. He was the joker, the one others could look to for an up-side to a down situation- and McGuire knew it. He took that responsibility seriously.

But now his eyes were asking for understanding. Asked Doogie not to ask for the charts again. Not to ask this of him. And Doogie resigned himself to that.

He swallowed in response and nodded.

"Can you just tell me what happened then?"

Jack gave him a half grin, forced most likely, and shoved at his shoulder.

"I just told you!"

He shrugged in response.

"You weren't listening?"

He shrugged again. I was trying not to. I wasn't ready. I don't think I'll ever be ready. But I have to.

McGuire let out a long sigh. Doogie watched his shoulders hunch under the pressure of an invisible weight.

"She came in here- a little before we sent you off to talk to that ballerina. I don't know how she got here- I didn't ask. Curly just came and got me she took care of her for a while, I guess and called the cops in." He sighed again. "Her clothes were dirty, her shirt was torn- Curly had her in a gown and took care of her clothes for evidence, before I even got in-" he stopped then.

"You sure you wanna hear this, Doog?" Jack's brow was wrinkled in concern and he looked reluctant.

Doogie bit his lips together and nodded earnestly.

"Okay," he shrugged. He took a deep breath and Doogie noticed how shaky it sounded. That worried him.

"She had a lot of bruises forming already." He glanced at Doogie. He raised his eyebrows at him asking a silent question, he watched Jack's face fall in reluctance as his answer.

"On her shoulders, where he'd grabbed her. One on the side of her cheek and uh," he pushed his hair back to buy some time, " other places."

His tightened lips said as clearly as any words I'm not spelling that one out for you Howser, so don't even ask.

Doogie decided he could definitely let him have that one.

Jack grinned then and looked back at Doogie. "But boy, she put up a fight!" He laughed. "There was blood and skin under her nails, she grabbed a handful of his hair out, and she showed me her rings and said she'd left her mark all over his face! She even had some bruises on her knuckles to show for it! She musta really gotten in some good punches! Oh, and she even bit him for good measure!" He slapped his knee and laughed. "Your sister must really be a force to be reconed with."

"Really good stuff in terms of evidence," he continued. And obviously enough visual marks to identify him on sight. Ring gauges on your face and a big human bite mark on your hand are hard to miss."

Rather than being cheered by his sister's apparent scrappy nature, Doogie swallowed, feeling nauseated.

He wished then that he hadn't had that late night snack with Jane that morning- which he knew was why she was actually vomiting at 3AM rathe than simply dry-heaving. He'd found her there in the kitchen at around 1:30 with a carton of ice cream, a spoon, and an open box of cold pizza. Doogie'd smiled at the fare and eagerly grabbed a spoon then sat down next to Jane.

She'd said nothing, no objection, nothing. And neither did he. They both sat in silence, eating, and enjoying the fact that neither of their parents would approve of this. For the first time in what felt like years, Doogie actually felt comfortable around Jane. Not afraid she'd burst into tears, or some screaming rage, or that she'd snap at him that he needed to leave her alone. It was just like old times again. Before she hit puberty full on and entered middle school. If this is what middle school does to you, he'd thought more times than once, I'm sure glad I missed out on it.

"And as far as examining her- the pelvic and all-"

Jack's voice brought Doogie back to reality with a snap. He felt his ribs moving in and out as he inhaled and exhaled, and he could feel the artery in his neck pulsing hard.

"Was it," he interrupted, "Was it…bad?"

Jack let out a slow breath, glanced at Doogie, then looked away. "Just be glad you didn't have to do it." Was his answer.

And suddenly Doogie remembered how much makeup Jane'd been wearing when he got home that afternoon. And the odd limping walk she'd had- which he'd attributed to the football she was being 'forced' to play in gym for a whole week. She hated football. Heck, she hated all sports. Except for running.

The next thing he knew, Doogie was running to the toilet with a hand over his mouth.

As he vomited up what was left of the pizza- he'd finished it up long after Jane went back to bed- he wished he could vomit more, do something for catharsis. Something painful to distract him. But mostly, he wished for something that would make it all go away.

"Aw, geez, Doog, I'm sorry."

He heard Jack's voice behind him.

As he wiped his mouth with a wad of toilet paper he realized he might as well tell Jack how he knew his sister'd been raped. Cuz she wasn't that kind of girl, for one thing, and the other- throwing up or dry heaving for longer than he'd care to admit- since he felt guilty in not seeing it as a real problem. Until now.

He pushed himself back up and turned to Jack, though he didn't look at him.

"She's pregnant, you know."

"I know."

"What!" He looked up sharply. "How?"

"When she did this to me." He raised his hand up, showing the scar.

"Curly took the opportunity to take a blood sample when they were restraining her."

To Doogie's surprised look he added, "She's good, ya know. Jane never felt a thing."

He stared a moment in silence then commented, "And that's why you wanted her back here. And why you wanted to see her so much even before that."

Jack nodded. "We already had the evidence, but it was too soon to tell if"

Seeing the look on Doogie's face, he stopped. "If it makes you feel any better, there's nothing else wrong with her."

It doesn't.

"What about Canfield? What about the guy that-"

Jack put an arm around his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It's being taken care of. Why don't you just go home Doog, huh? I'll tell everyone you won't be in."

Doogie felt lost. "Jack, what do I- can't you do-" he sighed helpless and put his hand over his eyes. "Jack, I don't know what to do. She's my sister. I don't know how I'm going to-"

He put both arms around him then, pulling Doogie in. It was then that he could feel how his body was shaking. Still, he willed himself not to cry.

Not now. Not now.

"Just go home Doog," Jack's voice was soft and concerned- but authoritative. "Go home. Talk to your sister."

Doogie backed away then and headed for the door.

"And tell her,"

Doogie stopped and looked back at Jack.

"Tell her I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for..you know. I never wanted to… I didn't want to hurt her. And I'm sorry. For everything."

Doogie felt a well of tears pushing against his eyes and his stomach heaving into tight knots again. He took a deep breath in, turned back around and walked out.

Just go home, he thought. Go home.


	16. Chapter 16

"Well, maybe I don't want to hang out with you. I hate to break it to you, but you're really not gods, local celebrities, or anything like that. You're not even all that cool. In fact, most people don't think you're cool at all. They think you're annoying, rude and painfully immature. And in case you haven't figured it out yet, I do count myself as one of those people. I don't want to hang out with you."

Stacey, Amber and Erin still wouldn't leave. They were just hanging out at her locker, as if she hadn't insulted them. Jane shrugged, slightly amused, and wondered just how long it would take before they realized that she had.

Finally, Erin spoke up, in her shrill voice.

"What? What do you mean? You're blowing what is your only opportunity to hang out with us? The whole school looks up to us, and if you hung out with us, they'd look up to you too!"

Jane blinked. "Didn't you hear what I just told you?"

"Didn't you hear what I just told you?" She countered. "If you walk away now, you walk away for good. No more eating with us at lunch, being able to sit by us in class, no walking down the hall together- nothing. We won't even speak to you."

Jane shrugged, unconcerned and slammed her locker shut. "You didn't speak to me before."

"Well, duh. You weren't cool before." Erin rolled her eyes.

Jane laughed. "I wasn't cool before? You mean before you heard that I skipped school?"

"And got arrested."

"And came back to school like nothing happened," Amber added.

"And didn't even get in trouble- the teacher's didn't even know about it." Stacey finished.

"About you getting arrested that is," Amber corrected,- not about you skipping class. The whole school knew about that of course."

Jane shook her head and hoisted her backpack over her shoulder. "Of course," she answered. The answer in itself was a joke, but no one in the group seemed to grasp that.

Amber shook her head as if saddened. "Think of it- this is the only shot you'll have to get rid of that reputation you have."

"Yeah, I mean, you're a total nerd just by association." Erin nodded.

"Like, it's genetic or something," she laughed and tossed her hair. "Your brother's a nerd, so you are too."

Jane just barely resisted the urge to punch them- all of them. The only thing holding her back was- wait, what was holding her back? She shrugged. If I can't remember, it must not be that important. Then, with a smug grin, she grabbed the girls collectively by their long hair, pulled them all closely together, and like a set of metal 'clack' balls- she punched the one closest to her in the head. As expected, it hit the head of the next girl, which hit the head of the girl next to her. And then, because she couldn't punch them all at once, since she couldn't fight them all- as they'd run away, she threw them to the ground.

"You don't have a clue why I wasn't in school that day. You just going off of a rumor you heard from god knows who. And if that rumor hadn't involved the cops- thus some potentially scandalous gossip like I held up a liquor store- you would never have cared. I've been sitting at your table for lunch because the lunch room is crowded and your table is closest to the food and the bathroom. I never liked any of you. And none of you ever liked me. And from what I've heard you say about each other- none of you even like each other."

She began to walk towards the door, and then turned around to address them one last time. "And for the record, my brother's not a nerd. He's a genius."

"You got called to the principal's office?"

Jane groaned and threw her backpack down.

"For punching a group of girls?"

"School was over," she insisted. "I shouldn't have gotten called in there at all!

"I only punched one of them!" She protested.

"Just wait till your father hears about this."

"If it upsets you," she offered sweetly, "you shouldn't tell him."

Mom glared at her.

She was trying to be nice, making a joke. Why couldn't anyone see that lately?

She shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

"Why on earth would you go around beating people up?"

"I didn't beat anyone up!" She insisted. But if I knew I was going to get in trouble for it, she thought, I might as well have gone the whole way with it and really wailed on them.

"Because they were making fun of me." She answered because she knew Mom wanted something to go off on.

And because I wanted to, she added silently and smiled. Next time I really will beat them up. That'll teach 'em not to tell on me. If they thought I hurt them before-

"That's no reason to beat anyone up, Jane. There is no reason to beat anyone up," she added.

"It is in my world."

"Don't speak to me in that tone, young lady. March up to your room. Stay there until your father gets home."

Jane frowned. Great. At least that's where I was planning on going. She grabbed her backpack and trudged upstairs.

Throwing her backpack on the floor and slamming the door behind her, she quickly followed her backpack in direction and flung herself onto the bed.

"I do good stuff, nobody notices," she grumbled. "I do bad stuff- even a little bit, and the whole frickin' world notices."

"Wake up!"

Jane's eyes flew open at the sound of her father's voice. She glanced at her bedside clock. It read 6:00. She sighed with relief once she realized that she wasn't late for school. Well, then why is he waking me up so early? And why is he mad? As she turned her head to look at him, she realized that it wasn't morning after all. She was still wearing her clothes.

"What?" She mumbled, counting the seconds till she could fall back asleep.

"Your mother told me you beat up a group of girls at school."

She shook her head. "I didn't beat them up." With that, she put her head back on the pillow.

"Then why did the principal call, say that you did, and then demand a meeting with us?"

She was slightly concerned about the meeting, but in her mind, she didn't really do anything wrong. And she could probably get out of it. Besides, to worry about it was to take time away from sleep.

"I dunno." The words were muffled in her pillow.

"Look at me when I speak to you! Don't you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Ground me more and get it over with." She mumbled, her head still in the pillow.

"Don't you care-"

"No."

"Well, that's apparent. Your mother and I now have to take time out of our day- that's money in the bank, clothes on your back and food on the table- in your terms, just so that we can 'discuss' your behavior problems in school recently."

That got her attention. She looked back at him and glared.

"I don't have any behavior problems! It's the other people that have problems. The teachers are mad that I'm not a genius like Doogie and the kids are jealous…well I dunno of something I guess. They just hate me."

"Jane, you're full of excuses as to why you should be the exception to the rule. Lately you've been acting like you could get away with murder. I don't stand for that type of behavior in my house. Straighten up and fly right or get ready to get shipped out."

Jane rolled her eyes. Way to go dad. Was that supposed to be inspiring, or inspirational or something?

"Now, come down to dinner and eat."

"I'll go when I wanna go," she answered annoyed.

Crap. Did I say that out loud? She moaned and shoved her face into the pillow. Probably not. I'm sure I'm asleep by now.

"Jane Katherine-"

She heard something smash and jerked her head up. She saw he'd smashed his hand against one of her old knick-knacks.

"I don't know what is wrong with you lately, young lady, and at this point- yes, at this point, I don't give a damn! I am tired of your antics and tired of putting up with your adolescent garbage! Do you hear me! Straighten up or I promise you, you will be shipped out of this house!"

Jane rolled her eyes. Good. But this time she kept the thought inside her head.


	17. Chapter 17

He didn't go home. For the first time in a long time, he went over to Vinnie's. And for the first time in an even longer time, if ever- he kept a serious secret from his best friend.

"You're no actor, Howser," Vinnie scolded, pointing a nurf ball at him, "I'll get it outa ya."

Doogie shrugged.

Obviously bothered that his tactic hadn't worked, he sidled up to Doogie.

"So, you wanna talk about it?"

Doogie looked at him incredulous. "If I wouldn't tell you five seconds ago, what makes you think I'm going to tell you now, just because you asked in a slightly different way?"

There was more anger in his tone than he intended, but if Vinnie noticed it, he gave no indication.

He just shrugged, holding out his hands in supplication. "You know where to find me if ya need me," he offered, as though unconcerned.

Doogie couldn't help but laugh at that. But it wasn't much of a laugh.

Vinnie sighed. "Well, come on then, if you won't crack yet, at least eat something. Ma's got some left over lasagna downstairs. It's actually pretty decent this time," he added, grinning.

Doogie forced a grin in return, and wished it wasn't forced. Wished he actually was happy as he followed Vinnie more out of duty than any desire to eat. Frankly, he didn't want to do anything right now. He wished for total numbness. He wanted to be able to push this to the back of his mind and cram other things to the forefront, but couldn't.

"Howser!"

He started.

"Let's move it before it's tonight's dinner!"

It was after nine by the time he got home. He was slightly surprised when no one commented that he hadn't been home that morning or afternoon or dinner. No one seemed to have noticed at all that he'd left the house just before dawn. But, he supposed, he only felt they should notice because he had a guilty conscience.

Dad's hand was bandaged, and Jane was in her room, as usual lately. Mom told him she and Dad were going to school in the morning to talk with the principle- Jane'd beaten a group of girls up.

Doogie's eyebrows raised. Although, thinking back, how she'd stabbed McGuire, he couldn't say that he was all that surprised. And, now knowing what he did, he couldn't say that he blamed her.

When he got up to his bedroom, he could hear his sister mirroring a trait of his own, the familiar thud, thud, thud of a ball being thrown against the wall. And, from the way it made his wall frames shook, she was hurtling it with considerable force.

Without knowing why he did it, he opened the door and walked into her room.

She caught the ball in both hands as he entered. She was glaring at him.

"You could've knocked!" She snapped, her voice low.

He gave her a half grin and shrugged. "What, you were tossing the ball around naked?"

"Doogie!" She shrieked, disgusted. Then she chucked the ball at his chest.

He wasn't quite fast enough. The ball hit him smack in the center of his breastbone making him let out his breath with an 'oof!'.

"Jane!" It was his turn to glare now.

"That was inappropriate." Was her only response.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes, then moved to sit on her bed.

"Jane, I wanted to talk to you."

She looked up at him with the look of adolescent disgust that had made him sick lately. He closed his eyes for a moment. Puberty hormones combined with pregnancy hormones? Or just Jane?

"Maybe I don't wanna talk to you," she pursed her lips and cocked an eyebrow as if to say, 'what are you gonna do about it?' She also held up a leg to block him from sitting down.

Doogie felt his head fuming. She's taking this mis-directed anger thing a little too far. I am not the enemy here. Then he remembered why he'd come home so late and his stomach knotted. He knew he should talk to her about it, but he wanted things to stay normal for as long as possible. After all, this could be their last 'normal' conversation. Once this was out of the bag, and she knew it, nothing would ever be the same between them again. Still, as far as she knew, she alone was burdened by the knowledge of her pregnancy.

"Suits me," he leaned over and landed on her leg.

"Doogie!"

he chuckled and rolled over on his side, his legs dandling off the side of the bed. She dragged her leg out from under his stomach.

"I said I wanna talk to you! And I'm talking whether you're listening or not."

She shrugged and looked away.

"Mom told me that she and Dad are going to school tomorrow to see your principle."

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes, "never had to do that with you. Unless maybe you peed your pants or something!" She laughed.

Doogie let out a puff of breath. He continued as if he hadn't said anything.

"Mom says you beat up a bunch of girls at your school."

She sighed loudly in annoyance. "I didn't beat up a bunch of girls," she answered. "I only hit one of them."

"So, that makes it okay?"

"Shut up Doogie. I mean, you can't even fight!

That was it. He raised his hands in frustration. "Fighting isn't a solution to anything!"

"I wasn't in a fight," she carefully enunciated each word. "And, fighting only never works for people who can't fight." "You weren't there," she answered. "You don't know what I've been through there lately. You don't know at all."

She maintained her irritating defiant stance, but her eyes were looking elsewhere, staring off into space, as if considering something she hadn't thought of before. Then he watched her blink hard, a stricken look on her face then look away.

"Enough talk. Go."

Doogie sighed. You blew it Howser. Way to go.

"Jane, look I-"

"Go!"

She motioned to the door, looking pointedly at him.

He sighed, dejcted, then stood to leave.

"Just, tell me how it goes tomorrow."

He walked out of the room without looking back.

"I have a feeling you'll know 'how it goes' tomorrow, all by yourself."

So much for old times.

Damn it. Some genius. I can't even figure out a way to talk to my own sister? Get her out of a funk? Way to go Howser.

"Howser."

"Howser!"

Doogie looked up, startled. Vinnie was sitting on his bed.

Genius! He grinned.

"What you off on that Russian space station or something? Earth to Doogie Howser!"

He shook his head and whistled low. "Boy, sometimes I really think those long hours at the hospital are really doing your genius brain in."

Doogie laughed and smiled happily, feeling like a child on Christmas day. And his present was going to be Vinnie.

"Vinnie?"

"Yeah?"

"I've got a great job for you."

"Oh yeah? What's the pay?"

"Well… just consider it to be an experience, a way to stretch your acting abilities, and thus be able to direct actors better during your film career."

Now he had Delpino's attention.

"What is it?" He asked, around a bite of pretzel.

He nodded his head to his wall where they could hear Jane's ball bouncing once again.

"Go in there."

Vinnie raised an eyebrow. "And do what?"

He sighed and thought a moment, realizing he didn't exactly know himself, but he did know the result he wanted.

"Just make her smile," he answered.

Not fifteen minutes later he heard his father's voice boom from downstairs,

"Jane, get to bed! Now!"

Doogie heard the voices in the other room silence.

"And Vincent- GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

Doogie burst out laughing. And he was happy to notice the sounds of both Vinnie and Jane following suit. At least something can make her laugh again.

By some evil curse, he woke up again.

He heard it again and wanted to throw up himself. Wanted to die. Wanted to go hide under a rock. Wanted to be gone. Wanted this to be gone. Prayed for it to be gone.

But when he heard the bathroom door close again, and her bedroom door, Doogie knew, felt fully just how selfish he was being. Just imagine, he told himself, if you can, just imagine how she must feel. Being raped is bad enough-

He shoved the covers off and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He pushed himself up to standing like a wind up soilder. And barely breathing, hearing the thud of his heart slamming in his chest, he made himself walk to his bedroom door, open it then close it softly behind him.

He'd learned long ago that in order to walk quietly at night, it was important to try not to walk quietly at all. Not try to do anything. Not think.

Not think. Yes, that was it. What he wanted to do. Needed to do. Don't think, just do, he told himself.

And so he walked softly down the hallway, trying to ensure that Mom and Dad were still sound asleep, any noise his feet made would not disturb it. He put his hand to the doorknob, and felt how badly his hand was shaking. He had to try twice before the door opened.

He didn't look at her, not until after he'd closed the door.

She was standing by the window. Looking out. Standing still as if frozen. Or as if trying to hold herself together, keep herself from falling apart. And he knew that was true too.

Doogie swallowed.

"Jane."

His voice was a whisper, hoarse. He felt his knees knocking together, felt his stomach tighten, his legs feeling like Jell-o, wishing he could die. That this could all be a dream.

He licked his lips, and wished for water as well.

"Jane?" He spoke again. Or, what he thought was again. Perhaps he hadn't spoken the first time. Perhaps only thought he had.

She turned around then, the light from the moon falling across her shoulders and the top of her head, landing at her feet. He blinked his eyes, and for a moment she was six years old again, waiting for him to sneak in junk food from the kitchen. She wasn't big enough to get into the fridge adequetly, but was still an excellent partner in crime, always willing to do the dangerous thing- or direct the dangerous thing to be done, in case she could not do it. He had to admit, she was a little renegade princess. He and Vinnie would do her bidding, as even though much younger than they, always managed to be a capable and equal in terms of eagerness to play. In truth, Doogie knew Vinnie liked her more than him.

He blinked again. And saw that still, she was so small. She was staring at him, her eyes wide. She was biting her lips, still frozen in place.

Suddenly she blinked hard and ran to him. She slammed into him for a moment, before her legs gave out and she slid gracefully to the floor. How she managed grace just then was beyond him. Even then she was still holding him, her arms wrapped around his legs, her head against his knees. And she was crying, sobbing.

Instantly, he was on the floor with her, thankful that he didn't have to stand. She knew he knew.

He held her against him, tightly, wishing to take things back. To have held her tightly before instead of pushing her away. And instantly he knew why she'd been acting out so much. It was easier to be angry than face the truth. Easier to push everyone away with meanness than to have to let them in on the truth.

"I'm scared!" She cried. "Oh, Doogie, I'm so scared!" She sobbed, her thin frame shaking hard from head to toe. "I'm so scared, Doogie," she moaned. "I'm so scared!"

"I didn't," she gasped, "I didn't-" she shook her head into his chest not finishing her sentence.

"I'm here. It's okay," he whispered in her ear. "It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay," he soothed, using all of his strength to keep from crying as well. How? How would it be okay?

"I didn't," she spoke again in between gasping sobs, " I made Jack promise…. I wanted… to go away."

"I tried to… he, but I couldn't, and he," she looked up at him then, for the first time shaking her head, her lower lip sticking out, her eyes pools of tears. "Doogie," she gapsed, "I tried," she sniffled hard, " I tried, but.. but I couldn't!" She burst into a new bout of tears. "I… tried!" She sobbed.

"I know," he answered, "I know you did. It's not your fault. It's not your fault," he whispered.

"And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I wasn't there. I would've," he couldn't finish. He just held her tighter, letting his hug tell her everything else.

He swallowed hard, and finally let himself go as well. His tears matching hers, knowing that she didn't necessarily want his strength then, but just him. Whatever he was and whatever he felt at the moment, it was enough. It had to be.

She put all of her weight into him then, finally callapsing underneath the weight of her secret. Doogie held her then, as she sobbed, crying all the tears she'd held inside, letting out the fear and shame and disgust and guilt, without saying a word.

He held her till she cried herself to sleep. She didn't even notice when Dad opened the door. Doogie looked up at him, praying he'd know to keep quiet. Not try to take over the situation. And to his relief, Dad just raised his eyebrows, held Doogie's gaze for a moment more, and closed the door.

Doogie sighed. He'd have a lot of explaining to do in the morning. Going to see the school's principle would not be on the day's agenda. He sighed again,leaned back against the door, closed his eyes and fell asleep, still holding onto his sister.


	18. Chapter 18

Clearly, it took me forever to figure out how to deal with this part. Now, I'm past caring! So, here it is.

"We have to talk."

Doogie'd been sitting there, trying to stay calm by tapping a fork on the edge of his empty plate while Mom poured coffee. He chose, wisely, not to eat breakfast before this encounter. He'd been waiting like a doomed man, for Dad to come downstairs. Jane, suspended, was still upstairs, Doogie hoped, still sleeping.

"I'm on my way out the door, son." He'd just put down his mug and was straightening his tie

"I know," he cleared his throat uneasily, "but this is more important."

"Douglas, your little sister beat up a group of girls at school, your mother and I have to-

"It was one girl, and she only hit her once."

"That in no way excuses-"

"I'm not saying that it does. And I'm not pretending to know any of the details or understand why she did it- I don't know. But for what I do know," he took a deep breath "you'd better sit down."

He glanced at mom, and suddenly felt kicked in the gut, realizing that this news would hit her the hardest. He bit his lip in thought. "Mom," he began, " I don't know if you, I mean, maybe I'll just talk to Dad."

She shrugged. "Sure Doogie." Mom smiled at him as she always did, then turned picked up a few stray catalogues from the counter and began to walk to the living room, unaware of the news her son had. For her this was just another day.

He sighed. This news would hurt her no matter what. Before she left the room he spoke again, suddenly. There was no other way he'd be able to do this.

"Jane's pregnant."

The words echoed in his ears. Had he yelled that? Maybe he'd been imagining things. Maybe he only thought he'd said it. He halfway hoped he'd said nothing at all.

When mom turned around, he knew the truth. Her eyes were huge, and all color had drained from her face. The catalogues fell to the floor.

"What?" She walked back into the kitchen, staring at him in disbelief.

"I, I'm sorry. I just, I had to say it. I'd keep beating around the bush. I had to tell you, it was now or never. I didn't want to hurt you, but it's too late. It's too late to do anything," he whispered.

"Douglas, what on earth are you talking about?" Dad glowered at him, his coffee cup lowered to the table. "Young man this is inappropriate for a joke, even for you.'

"It's not a joke."

"How, Doogie?" Mom was gripping to the counter so hard her knuckles had turned white.

"when she, that day she wasn't in school…. She wasn't at school because," he steadied his voice and tried to fight back tears, "she wasn't there because she was," he swallowed, "she was getting raped," he let the words out quickly. "And then she walked to the hospital, and stayed there for a while."

There was silence.

"She didn't do anything wrong."

Dad was just staring into space, and when he looked at Mom, she'd slumped down on the floor.

"David! David, oh my god, my baby!" she screamed. My baby! My poor baby!' She sobbed hysterically for a moment, then her head raised and she looked daggers at Doogie. He jumped back in shock.

"It's not true. It's not. Doogie you go back to that hospital and tell that McGuire that this joke has gone too far. He'll have me to answer to. What a horrible thing to say, getting raped, but then- my god! I'd like to give that son of a bitch a piece of my mind!"

Doogie's jaw dropped. He'd never in his life known his mother to swear. He shook his head. "No Mom, it's true. I'm sorry."

"But this is impossible!" Dad went to her and helped her to her feet. " She's- David, it's impossible."

But David wasn't ready to wallow. His nostrils flared and his face reddened. He stared at Doogie with as much hate he'd ever seen. "Douglas Howser, you tell me who knows about this. Why haven't the police been banging at our door and giving us suspects on a platter? Why the hell hasn't Canfield called me?" He roared. "How does she get admitted to a hospital, her parents aren't called and the police haven't been summoned? What kind of hospital are you working at?"

Before Doogie could get a word in, he watched Dad grab the nearest phone, and by the sound of it knew he was calling Canfield's office.

"Ben, so help me God your head or something else is going to roll.

"My daughter is pregnant! How the hell did she go into your hospital and come out pregnant?"

The vein in Dad's forehead was sticking out, and the carotid artery in his neck was visibly throbbing. He could just imagine where Dad'd be next shift- the cardiac unit.


	19. Chapter 19

"Why didn't you tell us this, Douglas?"

Yup. And there it was.

"I… I just found out." And then he sat there, staring at the ceiling, and told them everything he knew.

"Well," Dad sank down into a chair, "what now?"

"There's nothing we can do." That's it, detatch yourself. Now it was just like a conversation about a patient. "She's about 3-4 months along now. I don't think she realized it until just about a week ago."

"But the rape?"

"Well, she wasn't too likely to tell us about that after the way we interrogated her, now was she David?"

"She was probably just trying to forget about it." Doogie added.

"You're sure?"

He nodded. "Nurse Spaulding even took some blood work. She's definitely pregnant."

"The question is how pregnant."

Doogie knew what his father was thinking.

"Dad, there's no way, she's four months at least."

He let out a breath, putting his fingers to the bridge of his nose. Then he rose and walked upstairs.

"David, where are you going?" Mom asked.

"To talk to her."

"I should-"

"You can," he answered already at the top of the stairs, "After I'm done."

Doogie took one look at Mom and scrambled up the stairs after him.

"Jane."

She was awake, still in her pajamas, staring out the window, just as she had been the night Doogie went in to see her. Clearly she had no plans on going to school that day. And he knew, Dad wouldn't let her go now.

"Jane."

She turned with a sigh. "Dad, I didn't mean to-"

"I know."

Jane stopped her speech.

"What?"

"I know." He walked slowly and sat down on the edge of the bed.

She tilted her head back and leaned away warily. clearly afraid.

"You know what?" She asked, and her voice was a whisper, her eyes now wide and damp. Doogie could see, even from a distance that she was taking extremely deep breaths.

"We know why you weren't in school all those months ago."

Jane's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in shock. Clearly she had been expecting to get another lecture about fighting in school.

"I, I don't know what you're talking about." She swallowed and looked sick.

"Honey," he sighed again, "Doogie talked to Dr. McGuire at the hospital."

She shook her head hard, looking away pointedly.

"No- no! I don't want to hear it!"

"Sweetheart, you do need to hear this." He took a breath in and Doogie could see to his shock that his father was shaking. "What he found out, was that in addition to your," he faltered for a moment, "in addition to what some disgusting son of a jackel has done to you,"

She closed her eyes tightly.

"that you are also pregnant."

Jane shook her head again, still refusing to look at Dad. "No," she whispered. "No."

"Jane, we have to talk about this."

"No! I'm not- I'm not," she gasped for air, her face red, "I'm not what you think! I'm sick! I told you! I'm just sick!"

"No honey," he rose from the bed and walked towards her.

When he reached out to her, she screamed and shoved him away.

"No! It isn't true! Get out!" She shouted, then shoved at him again, "Just get out!"

He nodded. "Fine. Your mother is downstairs, if you need her."

Then he turned on his heel and left the room, closing the door behind him and walking past Doogie without a word.

He was out of the house before Doogie even made it downstairs.

"You'd better get going to the hospital Doogie," his mother commented, sniffing. Clearly she'd been crying. She was standing in the kitchen, chopping carrots. She did nothing with the cut pieces, just kept on chopping, her shoulders rising and falling with raged breaths.

"Mom, I-"

"Just go, Doogie." She seemed to lack the energy to say anything else. The big meeting at Jane's school that day was no longer even on their radar.

He grabbed his keys and had the door open when Mom spoke again.

"Doogie, honey, tell me it isn't true."

He paused and turned back. Looking at her, he shrugged and felt like a five year old about to be punished or waiting for the gallows.

"I can't say that. It _is_ true, Mom."

Her eyes looked sad for a moment, then they seemed to snap with an inward fire.

"You get that half-grown kid over here!" Her mouth was a solid line as she kept chopping away. "The nerve! Not to tell me! Or your father! Yes, you get him over here tonight," she slammed the knife down hard on the nearest carrot, "and I don't want to hear anything else about it!"

****************************************************************

"Jack?"

When he turned Doogie saw he'd actually given McGuire a black eye and a slightly swollen lip.

"Doog, what is it?" He was relieved to see that clearly Jack harbored no hard feelings.

"Uh, well, it's my mom. She….wants you to come over for dinner tonight."

"Dinner?"

"Yeah."

"Ah, yes!" Canfield appeared behind Jack, and slapped him jovialy on the shoulder, wearing a too wide grin. "Dinner at the Howser house! Katherine Howser has got to be one of the best cooks in the county! You could not refuse that woman's invitation."

Then the smile disappeared. His face became chiseled with scarecely concealed anger.

"And you will not refuse." He added.

"He knows," Doogie muttered under his breath.

Jack's mouth dropped open. He forced a choked laugh. "Oh, oh no sir. Of course not. I would be only more than happy to-"

Dr. Canfield squeezed Jacks' shoulder tightly- and from the looks of it, painfully. "Good."

Then he walked back into his office.

"There's no way I can get out of this, is there?"

Doogie shook his head. "Nope."

Catching Curly's eye, he nodded to her. "Can Spaulding come with me?"

His eyes had a glimmer of hope in them. Of course he was thinking that Mom wouldn't completely dismember him with witnesses. Just as he had wanted Vinnie around when he knew he was about to have a confrontation.

Doogie made a face. "I don't think so, Jack."

Nurse Spaulding walked up to them. "What's going on?" She asked, eye brows raised in concern.

"Doogie's mom has invited me," he took a breath, "to dinner. Tonight."

"Oh?" She asked. Then she saw their faces. "Oh." She amended.

Her eyes filled with concern and sadness then. She grabbed Doogie's arm and gave him a brief half hug. "I'm so sorry about this, Doogie, really I am." She closed her eyes at the memory. "Jack said you found out the other day."

He nodded.

"I'm so sorry," she repeated. "But, Doogie, you know it could have been much, much worse. She's lucky, really." The last part was a sad attempt, even though it was partially true.

"Did you tell your parents that?"

"Didn't think of it," he noticed that his voice was curt and sharp. He was trying like hell not to think of it. He bit his lips together. How am I supposed to get through the rest of the day if I can't st-

"Douglas-"

He straightened at the sound of his father's voice.

"Dad?" He turned and saw him walking up the hall. Dad hardly ever came to the hospital.

Before he could say anything else, Dr. Canfield was walking back toward the group, past them and towards David Howser.

"David, I'm glad you could make it."

He nodded sharply. "Wish it were under better circumstances."

"Come into my office."

The two walked back, and just after Dad had walked inside, Dr. Canfield called over his shoulder, "Spaulding and McGuire, don't make plans to go anywhere, anytime soon."

They both swallowed hard, then answered in unision, "Yes, Dr. Canfield."

Dr. Canfield sent him home after he and Dad finished their talk, but not before he'd called both McGuire and Spaulding into his office. Curly was crying when she came out of the office, and Jack didn't look much better. He'd clapped him on the back, and called over his shoulder, "See you tonight." It was then that he heard Canfield's door open again and the order to, "Go home, Dr. Howser," from him. The problem? Just as Jack didn't want to go to his house- he didn't either. He didn't want to see Jane, didn't know what to say to her.

Doogie had driven around for hours, and when he finally arrived home, mom was fixing dinner. She'd told him that Jane was in her room and that she was not to be disturbed. Dad was home by that time as well. There was no telling what he and Canfield had spoken about. But by the look on Dad's face, it was nothing good.

Dinner was as unpleasant as it could possibly be. Jack had shown up right on time. Doogie knew that under ordinary circumstances he'd have shown up early, but he also knew he was trying to save his own ass as well. And poor Mom. She really wanted Jack on a platter. She wanted to make him suffer. She was simply dragging it out, setting it up with a guise of ease and familiarity, with none of the venom that he knew she was feeling.

When Dad got up and left the table, Jack swallowed hard. Hopefully Jack understood that he had to be the whipping boy for this. The second Dad was out of the room, Katherine pounced.

"Tell me," she insisted, looking Jack in the eye.

"Mom!"

"Everything," she added, as if Doogie weren't there at all.

"Mom," he tried to smile kindly at her, "you don't need to hear-  
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. " Everything you told Doogie. And the things you didn't because he couldn't stomach it."

He was offended. Yet, looking at Jack, whose face was reddening and he could only meet Doogie's sharp glace with an apologetic look- he knew it was true. He could have sworn he'd told him everything that had happened, everything. And he was also shocked that his mom knew he'd not been told all, when she hadn't even been there.

"Doogie," she turned sweetly to him, "Why don't you go and….play with your sister?"

He shut his mouth, and realizing there was nothing else he could do, rose from the table. He was walking toward the livingroom when Jack caught his eye.

Don't leave me alone with her, was what his eyes pleaded.

Doogie shrugged.

"She's my mom," he answered aloud.

He didn't go upstairs to play with Jane. As he watched Dad walk out the door keys in hand, Doogie sat down in the living room, where his mother couldn't see him, and listened. Because, although he knew he didn't really want to know- if there were things he didn't know- he wanted to know. Even though he also knew he'd regret it.

There were times when he wanted to close his ears, but he listened anyway. Times when he wanted to yell and cry. Times when he vomited into the large potted plant. But he listened anyway. Listened to his mothers cries of emotional and physical agony and Jack McGuire described a sickeningly brutal rape. And told how the brutality could be known without being an actual witness. And because he was listening he heard a dull thud hit the table. And because he'd heard that sound before, because he knew Jack's character, and because he knew Canfield had accused him of stealing records- he knew Jack was giving Mrs. Howser Jane's entire medical records regarding the rape, the tests done to her, all documentation- everything. He heard his mother sob, and then a dragging sound. He knew without seeing, that Katherine Howser had pulled the medial record towards her, and was cradeling it and crying, as if it were Jane herself.


	20. Chapter 20

"_She's four months along now." _

Doogie was standing outside their bedroom door, listening. It was midnight by the time Dad came home, and Mom was already in bed.

"_I wish we would have known sooner. Why didn't she say anything? How could I have not known?"_

"_Well, menstral cycles at her age are irregular-_

"_I'm talking about the rape, David! My god, my baby! How could I not know? A mother is supposed to know these things!" She started sobbing. "And I had no idea! I knew something was wrong, but-" _

"_At this stage, I can't say I feel comfortable with her having an abortion."_

"_And I'm not comfortable with her carrying a baby inside her! At her age? David, think what that could do to her!"_

"_She's always been small for her age," he agreed."We'll have a cesarean done," he added._

Doogie's eyes widened and he shook his head. Bad idea, Dad. You know that's a bad idea! A vaginal delivery is much safer._  
_

"_You're right, that's exactly right. I won't have her going through labor! No. No. I won't have her suffer any more than she already has." She's not keeping the baby either," she insisted._

"_No, no of course not- I wouldn't dream of it."_

Doogie walked in then. They were both sitting up in bed and only blinked when he entered.

"Dad, a cesearean is dangerous. And Mom, this is her baby- her body, we can't say what to do."

"The hell we can't, Douglas," Dad answered. "The hell we can't. The very thought. We are the parents, she is a minor. End of discussion."

"What if she wants to keep the baby?"

Mrs. Howser made a scoffing sound in her throat. "Doogie, your sister isn't stupid, she knows raising a baby is nothing like having a doll. And besides, why would she want a daily reminder for the rest of her life of the atrocity that happened to her? It's bad enough just to be pregnant!" She shook her head. "I won't have it, Doogie. I simply won't have it."

"But, Mom-"

"And going through labor and birth? Pardon me, Doogie, but you can have no idea what that is like. Over my dead body will she go through such an experience."

"But-".

Her voice was shrill. "Douglas, you don't have a daughter, you don't know what it's like to be a parent."

He opened his mouth to say more, but realizing the futility of it, he closed it, and without another word left the room, closing the door behind him.

**************************************************************

"You don't know what it's like to be a parent? Howser, what did you do?"

"Vinnie!" He hissed, not wanting to wake his sister, who was probably the only one able to sleep. Vinnie was sitting on his desk, apparently having waited for him to enter his room. "It's late, what are you doing here?" He stumbled over a book on the floor as he closed the door behind him.

"I've known for two days that something was up. First, no one took your sister to school this morning. Second, you left for work late. Third, your dad left for work and wasn't even heading in the right direction!"

"It's nothing, Vinnie." He didn't even bother asking how his friend knew all this.

Vinnie made a face. No, no," he shook his head with certainty. "Your father came home at an odd hour. You came home at an odd hour. Jack McGuire came to your house for dinner, and did not look happy about it. Doogie Howser, no one comes to your house for dinner looking unhappy the way your mom cooks." He hopped down from the desk. "No, no," he repeated, "there's something up in the Howser household." He looked at his friend seriously. "What is it?"

When Doogie didn't answer, Vinnie paced the floor and asked another question. "It has something to do with that stuff we found in your sister's room, doesn't it?"

The stuff in question had disappeared.

He still didn't answer.

"Your dad left the house after dinner, and drove around aimlessly for hours!"

"How do you know that?"

"He circled the house three times- how much more aimless does it get?"

Doog, come on, give. I wanna help ya here, but I can't if you don't tell me."

"It's a family matter," he answered reluctantly.

"I know that!" Vinnie slapped a hand to his forehead.

Doogie sighed. "It's private," he muttered, wishing it weren't private at all. Wishing it was all a dream, or nightmare instead.

"I'm your best friend, Doog- it doesn't get more private than that!"

He couldn't even meet his gaze anymore, and feeling suddenly drained, he sat down on the bed.

"It's bad, Vin." His voice was almost a whisper.

It's about Kid Howser, ain't it?" He grinned. Then he glanced at Doogie and his wise-cracking attitude vanished. "What is it? Does she got leukemia too? Is that what it is, she's got it?"

He looked him then. Vinnie was actually sweating, biting his lips in concern.

"No, it's nothing like that."

Vinnie smiled and slapped Doogie on the back in relief. "Well, then it ain't that bad! What, did she get suspended again? Expelled? My mom heard her cryin' up in her room this afternoon, and said somethin' was going on. See, you can't keep it from us Delpinos," he tapped the side of his head, "we know things."

He sighed again.

"Doog, what is it? You can tell me."

"It's about Jane."

"Yeah?"

Jane was his favorite, not Doogie. Vinnie would never admit it, but he loved hanging out with the non-child prodigy of the family. He and Jane were alike in their big mouths and their mischevious ways. The two truly were kindred spirits, and Doogie swore up till now he'd kill Vinnie if he ever thought of Jane otherwise, in his typical horn dog manner- no matter how old Jane got.

He shook his head.

"You're not gonna want to hear this."

"I already know it's bad, and I do wanna hear it," he insisted.

"I mean you're really not gonna want to hear it. When I tell you, you'll want to punch me in the gut- or elsewhere."

"That bad, huh?"

"I can take it, whatever it is!" He bit his lower lip with his upper teeth and looked at Doogie earnestly.

"Okay." He sighed, willing himself to be as detached as possible.

"Remember that time Jane skipped school?"

"Yeah," Vinnie's tone encouraged more information.

"Well, she didn't skip school."

This was where Vinnie was supposed to jump in and ask the obvious, "Well, what did she do 'den?" But he didn't. He waited.

Doogie blew his breath out through half puckered lips.

"Doog, come on, I'm dyin' here."

When he sighed again, involuntarily, Vinnie began shaking his head, "You keep doin' dat." He shook his head again, and sighed aloud as well.

"Vinnie, she was, she got"

"What?"

He ran a hand through his hair. This was even worse than telling Mom and Dad!

Finally, he forced the words out in one sentence just as he had earlier.

"Jane was raped."

Vinnie's mouth dropped open. "She wha-?" In the next instant his demeanor changed. He began jumping up and down with energy, punching violently at the air. "I'll kill 'im! I'll kill 'im!" He screamed. His body showed the tenacity he'd willingly attacked Tank with, when defending his best friend. But his eyes shown black with a true intent to kill.

"I'll kill the bastard! Where is he? Lemme at 'im!" He screamed, tears threatening to stream down his cheeks. "Let me at 'im!"

"Vinnie, that's not all." The calmness in his voice amazed him. He was still sitting on the bed, now simply staring at the wall in front of him. Better get this over with too, he thought.

"She's pregnant. That 'bastard' got her pregnant."

His anger vanished, and the energy left his body. Like a deflated balloon, Vinnie sank down in Doogie's desk chair.

"She's?"

And that's as far as he got. His canieving, frank Italian face crumpled in misery. The next second, he shoved a fist to his mouth and sobbed. He cried in such a way as Doogie had never seen. It was worse than a death or a funeral. He cried as if his very soul had been ripped out, and he sobbed openly,passionately- unashamed.

"The kid," he managed as he choked in a breath, "my god, the kid."

Doogie moved to comfort his friend, but Vinnie shook his head, stiffening his body with a disgusted look in his eye. Before he could wonder why Vinnie was disgusted with him, Vincent Delpino was on his feet storming courageously toward "Kid Howser's" room.

"Vinnie, I don't think that's a good idea. She doesn't want anyone to see her right now!" He hissed the words, and he still assumed the rest of the house was asleep.

Vinnie shook his head hard. "Nah, no way. No way, Howser. I know what's best for her." He stopped then and poked a finger roughly to his chest. "I know!" He insisted. Clearly the implication was that he, as Jane's brother, did not. Nor did the rest of the family- and that was what truly disgusted Vinnie. He knew that she had not been given the kind of comfort that she needed.

Then he opened her door. Jane was huddled in the corner by the window, wrapped in a blanket. She was wide awake.

When Vinnie saw her his face crumpled again, and he ran to her on the floor, sobbing anew.

"I'm sorry!" He cried, clinging to her, his face buried in her small shoulder. "I'm sorry!"

Jane held herself as stiffly as she had that morning, her mouth a pinched line.

Vinnie continued to cry unabashedly, sobbing. "I'll get him for ya! I'll kill him! I'll kill tha son of a bitch!"

"I"ll get him!" He sobbed, and took a loud breath in. "I'll get him!" He promised, his dark eyes locking eagerly onto her light eyes. But while Vinnie Delpinos eyes shown with emotion, Jane's were void of any emotion at all.

Doogie could tell she was still fighting, still trying to deny everything. But the one thing she couldn't deny broke her down first. Finally, she clung back to Vinnie, instead of the other way around. "I tried- I tried to," she inhaled, "I tried, Vinnie! I tried!"

She meant the attacker. She'd tried to fight him, to get away, and had failed.

"I know," his voice still as full of tears and sad as Jane's. "I know." He kissed the top of her head. He was fighting to be able to maintain enough control to speak. "It's not your fault!" The last word came out as a sob, as Vinnie lost it again, and began to cry. Shortly she composed herself, and sat patiently waiting for Vinnie to do the same. When he did, she announced,

"I'm not, Vinnie. I'm sick. I'm just real sick." She nodded, confirming it to herself.

Vinnie raised his head and bit his lip. Then to Doogie's shock, he put his hand to her lower abdomen feeling, Doogie knew, its rigidness. "Nah," he announced sadly, "Nah." Another sob escaped. He shook his head at her, tears streaming down his face. "You're not. You _are_."

Doogie realized then that she and Vinnie hardly ever spoke in complete sentences to one another. They didn't need to. They really were that close, and that alike.

Their comradery broke then. Jane pushed him away. "No! I'm sick!" She insisted.

He said nothing.

Apparently angered by his refusal to agree, she screamed again. "No!"

No response.

Her lower lip puckered, she was breathing more heavily her eyes glowing with water.

"No!" She screamed louder this time.

Vinnie just sat there, on his knees in front of her huddled form.

Doogie felt Dad's shoulder brush his arm. He looked over to the open doorway and saw both he and mom standing in the frame. He knew they'd been there for a long time.

Jane looked up then, and she was nothing but a ball of fury.

"Tell him!" She screamed at Dr. Howser. She gasped for breath. "Tell him!"

She can't even say the word, he realized.

"I'm not, I'm not!" She insisted. "Tell him I'm not!" It was like a child crying for a toy in tone , but not volume. If she'd ever cried that loudly for anything, it would have been the last sound she ever made. The problem was Jane wasn't crying for her father to give her a toy that she wanted. She was crying for him to take away the truth. "Tell him now!" She begged. "Right now!"

Dad said nothing. He just stood there, staring back at her as Vinnie had done.

When he wouldn't step in, she took matters into her own hands. She began beating Vinnie with her tiny fists. And what's more, not only did he let her, he moved closer to her so that she could happily connect with a target. "I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!" She insisted over and over, punching him with vigor. Vinnie had tears running down his face, but he made no sound. Her eyes were shut tight, and it wasn't Vinnie she was punching. Slowly the force and speed of the punches began to demish.

"I'm not," she said again, but she'd lost her previous vigor, the adrenaline leaving her.

She was gasping for breath, her shoulders heaving.

A glass of water appeared out of nowhere. Doogie grabbed it and passed it to Vinnie. He held it to Jane's lips so that she could drink. She swallowed, let out a shaky sigh and leaned against Vinnie like a broken doll.

The room was silent for a long time. Doogie thought Jane was finally falling asleep, and turned to go back to his room when she called out.

"Daddy?" She asked, her voice tiny.

Jane hadn't called Dad Daddy since she could probably remember. Doogie did though. She stopped calling him Daddy when she turned three. She thought it was more grown up to call him Dad. Or rather, she called him, "Da". She had difficulty with the second 'd'. It wasn't until they'd gone to see the movie Bambi, that she found a way to fix this problem. Apparently she had become fixated with Bambi's pronunciation of the word bird.

She came home and hopped around the living room yelling, "Bir-duh! Bir-duh! Bir-duh!" It was hysterical to her. She laughed and laughed after saying the word, and would begin all over again, hopping around and squealing. Mom smiled her approval and watched for a while, before leaving for the kitchen to make dinner. That left Doogie and Dad sitting on the couch, occasionally moving their legs in as Jane jumped past them. Finally Dad got so fed up that he folded his newspaper and went upstairs.

Jane watched him leave, mouth agape. Then her eyes lit up as a new idea came to her. She giggled and tried, "Da-duh!" instead. It worked. A smile lit her face and she crowed with happiness. "Da-duh! Da-duh!" Then she giggled, then with an exhausted exhale sank down to the floor and said in a normal tone, "Dad."

When Dad cleared his throat, Doogie was jerked back to the present.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Daddy, I'm not, am I?" She looked at him earnestly now, hopefully- desperately. "Not really?"

He heard Mom cry out, and as he looked she began to sob, her face buried in Dad's chest. Without taking his eyes off Jane, he answered in a tone Doogie hadn't heard him use towards her since she'd stopped calling him Daddy. He said,

"Yes, sweetie, you are. Honey, you're pregnant. You're going to have a baby."

Mom began crying louder, but Doogie was watching his sister.

Her lower lip puckered, and lips truly looked like an upside down smile, her eyes were huge. For a brief second he recognized the look as the one she gave just before she was about to tell on him and scream to-

"Mom!!!!"

Vinnie darted into the shadows as Kid Howser began the high-carrying cry of a frightened and dangerously injured child.

Katherine ran to her, saying nothing, simply holding her sobbing daughter tightly and rocking her, while sobbing freely herself.

He knew their job was done and their presense now was unnecessary. He turned after Dad to leave, and Vinnie followed wordlessly, his face still red and tear streaked, his shirt crumpled where fists had hit.


	21. Chapter 21

OMG- I re-found this story, assuming I'd finished it. Clearly I haven't. Sorry. Here we go again.

Whimpering was the sound that woke Doogie this time. Knowing it was Jane, he carefully and quietly rose from bed. By the time he'd made it down the hall and had his hand on the knob of Jane's bedroom door, the whimpering had become frightened cries.

He opened her door to find her still sleeping, thrashing and wrapped up in her bedsheets obviously in the middle of a nightmare. Doogie climbed onto the bed.

"Jane," he whispered. "Jane, it's me. Wake up."

He didn't want her to think that he was her rapist, since it seemed that was what she was dreaming about.

"Jane!" He hissed, putting a hand to her shoulder, shaking her slightly, hoping that it wouldn't feel violent. He'd considered trying to rouse her with a kiss to her head, then considered that may have been something her rapist did to her as well, and with a shudder of disgust chose to put a hand to her shoulder instead.

"Jane!"

Her eyes popped open.

"Doogie, no! Tell him to stop!" She begged, immediately clinging to him and starting to cry. "I don't wanna do it again!"

Jane was shaking with terror, and Doogie now feeling that sweat had soaked through her nightgown. He could feel the sweat on her scalp and face as well, but the wet on her face was mostly from falling tears. He could smell the smell of adrenaline and cortisol.

She looked from Doogie to the direction of her feet.

Now he felt confused.

"It's okay," he began. Confused as he may be Doogie decided to just start talking and see what happened. He knew Jane was only partially awake.

"You're home," he continued. "That man that raped you isn't here. He's in jail."

But Jane only shook her head. "No!" She insisted. "Jack! Tell him to stop!" She begged, clinging to Doogie again and crying.

"Make him stop!"

Doogie held her tightly, rubbing her back and rocking her slightly as he used to do when she was a small baby. "It's okay," he repeated. "It's just a bad dream. No one's gonna hurt you."

When she calmed back into restful sleep Doogie lifted his cheek from the top of Jane's head.

"Jack?" He whispered his one word question into the dark.

He didn't bother with small talk that morning. The moment McGuire walked into the locker room, Doogie announced, or rather accused,

"She's having nightmares about you."

Distracted, Jack lifted an eyebrow.

"Huh?"

Doogie continued on as if Jack had said nothing at all.

"What I want to know is why is she having nightmares about you?"

"She is the victim of a violent crime, the second most violent crime in America according to the FBI. So you'd think it would be reasonable for Jane to have nightmares about the man who attacked and raped her. Or," he offered, "about her pregnancy, the fear of childbirth...anything really."

"But you?" He walked up to McGuire.

"Why you?" He asked, making sure that his expression was both cold and menacing.

He decided to let McGuire sit with that on his conscience. Without another word Doogie walked out of the room, leaving Jack alone with what Doogie supposed should be guilt.

Lunch was a welcome relief. The events of that workday had shoved Jane and her strange nightmare to the back of his brain where it sat, entirely forgotten. Until Jack plopped down next to him.

Before he remembered why, Doogie glared at him.

Jack held up both hands. "What?" He demanded.

"You," Doogie answered flatly.

"Look," the older doctor sipped from his soda and swallowed before continuing, "I have no idea what your deal is, Howser."

Doogie felt foolish. He had to admit he didn't really know either. In admission, he spat out what he knew.

"Jane had a nightmare last night. Crying, yelling, thrashing around. When I held her she was dripping in sweat and she smelled like fear."

Curly made a face. "How can you smell fear?" She asked.

Jack answered. "Hormones, plus pheremones. The way you can tell if a girl's basketball team or a boys just played a game in the gym," he explained. "The smell is just different."

"Oh."

"So I assumed," Doogie continued, "she was having a nightmare about the man that raped her or," he voiced the more bothersome thought, "a nightmare that she was _being_ raped." He swallowed the sick taste in his mouth, at the same time pushing his lunch tray away from him.

Curly's doubtful expression changed to one of empathy and pain.

"I'm sorry Doog," she whispered.

But he held up a hand to stop her. "No," he clarified, "she wasn't having a nightmare about that, or that asshole." His words were sharp, more hateful than he'd thought.

"Jane said, "I don't wanna do it again."

Curly covered her mouth, clearly fighting back bile. Doogie knew she was still thinking that Jane's nightmare was about her rapist. Quickly he added,

"She said Jack's name. She said it was him. That," he paused trying to recall just what she had said, "She said she wanted me to make him stop- I was still thinking she was talking about that animal, but when I said he can't hurt her anymore she said "No, Jack!", specifically emphasizing his name," Doogie added, "Make him stop. Tell him to stop."

He looked at Jack then. "Why would she say that?"

Doogie looked back at Curly, whose face was now reflecting more sorrow and regret than before. She couldn't even look at Doogie.


	22. Chapter 22

David Howser was surprised to see his son's girlfriend, and his son's coworker at his front door.

"Uh, Wanda, hello." If it had been just Wanda, he'd know why she was there, and what to say.

He nodded to the small blonde. "Nurse Spalding."

She smiled at him and both young women said in concert, "Hello Dr. Howser."

He couldn't imagine why they were there. Douglas was at the hospital. Surely Spalding knew that.

"Er, Doogie isn't at home ladies, he's still at the hospital."

Nurse Spalding smiled at him, and he was surprised to note that it was in a slightly patronizing manner. The tone she addressed him with next matched her expression.

"We know that, Dr. Howser," she smiled. "We're actually here to see Jane."

This compounded his surprise.

"Why?" Came out of his mouth the moment the question entered his brain.

Spalding looked upwards, indicating her thoughts were on the second floor of the house, likely where Jane was.

"Is Mrs. Howser at home?" She asked.

He didn't see what that had to do with anything.

"No," he answered.

Curly nodded. "That's good, actually. I think that might be for the best."

Now he was getting the distinct feeling that something was going on here. As if a trick were about to be played. Something unfamiliar, unexpected, unsettling.

"May I ask, just what are you two doing here?"

Putting a hand to his shoulder, again in a patronizing fashion, Spalding answered him in a way that gave him no satisfying answer.

"We're here to see Jane," she repeated.

Wanda stepped forward then, biting her lip before adding, "Dr. Howser, it might be a good idea, if you have anywhere to go, or even if you don't, maybe just go somewhere?" She asked. "So that we can be alone with Jane for a while?"

"I'm not about to leave her here alone!" Now he knew something was up, and he didn't like it.

Realizing that Spaulding was a legal adult, and one that could be trusted, he added,

"Why on earth should I leave my own home so that you two can speak with my daughter?"

"I don't mean to offend you," Curly offered, "but we need to have girl talk. And I think we'd all feel more comfortable, Jane would feel more comfortable," she added, "if she knew that neither of her parents could hear what she had to say."

"Or hear her crying," Wanda added softly, anticipating the most likely effect of their visit with Jane. Especially since she knew why she and nurse Spalding were there, and that neither of them were about to say the reason to a man, let alone a father who would likely blow his top if he heard the truth.

Curly noted that the senior Howser looked quite offended, but she wasn't about to back down. This had been her idea after all. If it was to work, knowing Dr. Howser's temper, she knew he would have to be out of the house and out of earshot. So, to back up Wanda Plenn's words, she simply looked sternly at him as she said, "Please Dr. Howser, we need to speak with your daughter alone."

"I don't have anywhere to go," David offered this up as excuse.

Curly pursed her lips and glared at him. Selfish, she thought. Egotistical. Doesn't know how to do what's best for his own daughter.

As firmly as possible she replied quickly, "Find somewhere to go." She stepped aside and pulled Wanda with her as she motioned outside with her hand.

Red, and looking bothered, Doogie's father loudly grabbed his keys, and letting his body language show his discontent stormed out of the house, made a show of loudly slamming the car door behind him and backing out and speeding down the road.

Wanda let out a sigh of relief.

"Finally."

Curly smiled. "Exactly." She pulled Wanda Plenn inside and closed the door.

Never having been in the Howser home before she simply made a guess as to where to go, and then moved confidently in that direction.

Wanda, who she knew had spent likely many years in this house, simply followed her which let her know she was going in the right direction.

As they reached the stairs Wanda asked, "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"No," she replied. "But, it definitely can't hurt. If she's having nightmares, then clearly she needs to talk about it."

In the upstairs hall Curly turned back and added, "I really appreciate you coming with me. Since I was there that night when Doogie brought you in, I know you sort of know what Jane was going through that day. And since I was there with Jane too, I definitely know what she went through. Because of that, Jane might not talk to me about it, but I think she will talk to you."

Wanda nodded. "Let's hope so."

"Which room is hers?" She whispered.

Wanda pointed to the room on the left.

For a moment Curly could see the past. A time when Wanda, and Vinnie too probably roamed this house freely. They probably played with Jane from time to time. A time before her innocence was stolen.

Curly knocked on the door.

"Jane?" Wanda spoke up, and Curly was glad. Jane knew her well enough to recognize her voice, and might not let her in. But Wanda? She was sure Wanda would be welcomed.

"It's Wanda Plenn," she continued. "Can I come in?"


End file.
